Reality Seer (Challenge)
by Midnighter 13
Summary: Who can you trust? and why? a challenge for writers who hate the old, Dumbles is manipulitive but doesn't do anything storyline. HP/LL Dark! but not evil Harry.
1. Back From the Future

(A/N) here is my Reality Seer challenge; write a story with this as the prologue. In this future everyone but Luna betrays him for selfish reasons. Harry sends his soul back in time to his 11 year old self and gives him the knowledge to fight. Write a fic about how Harry fights against Dumbledore without allying himself with Voldemort. Harry cannot trust Dumbledore, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, or Neville. He must be a Ravenclaw. He cannot become evil, but he may be dark. It must be a H/L pairing.

Harry Potter, slave living under the stairs. For as long as he could remember he had been know as freak. It was only once he went to school that he learned his name was Harry. Now locked in his cupboard, Harry moaned silently, his arm was broken again, of that he had no doubt. He had been to slow with the bacon with morning and his Uncle had hit him to make him hurry. Of course what really happened was he dropped the plate. So of course that deserved a beating from his _loving_ uncle. Harry thought bitterly. He knew better then to cry out; attention was bad; it only brought pain and work.

Harry was nearing his eleventh birthday, only a few more weeks. Suddenly Harry's eyes glowed. No one saw it, not even him, but he felt the effects. Power and knowledge poured into his mind. He remembered things that had never happened; he knew things that were not possible. And his scar burst into fiery pain. Suddenly it all stopped.

Harry looked up and standing in front of him was a man, his feet sunk through the floor, his green eyes sharp and penetrating. Then he spoke.

"Harry if you're seeing this then it worked, you should have all of my skills and Voldemort's memories. Yes you are a wizard, no; you cannot use magic on the Durslys yet."

Harry's eyes went wide as he assimilated new information. He realized what he felt now, memories and powers. His mind had rejected some of Voldemorts memories, only the parts where he was not torturing someone were left. As he was usually torturing someone, or at least contemplating it, some of his memories were missing. At least his skills were in place.

"You know what is coming Harry," the man Harry now recognized as himself said. "You will need to attend Hogwarts, but you should use it as an opportunity. Break Dumbledore for what he will do to you, but remember to gain friends and followers as well. You will need them when the time comes." Harry the elder said.

The older Harry faded out, and left a younger Harry Potter with the knowledge and power he would need to fight the dark lords of the wizarding world. This Harry would be strong, and powerful, he would not be a weak and pliable weapon for Dumbledore and Voldemort. No, this time he was his own side.

It was only a few weeks later when the letter from Hogwarts arrived. Harry had spent that time reviewing what he knew from the future that never happened. He knew how his future self was able to send his knowledge and memories back in time. He also knew why.

Dumbledore.

Dumbledore had manipulated him into sacrificing his life for a cause he didn't believe in, and gave him no choice. Then when Harry had finally killed Voldemort, Dumbledore reemerged, claiming that it was his power that killed Voldemort and not Harry's. But that wasn't the worst bit.

No, that wasn't the worst bit. The worst bit was using love potions on him to bind him in a magical marriage ceremony that could not be broken without both parties dieing. He had even believed what he was doing was because he loved the girl in question. Of course Ginny was being used as well, as a way to pay off the Weasleys debts. As soon as they were married, Ginny used Potter gold to pay off every debt the Weasleys had.

While Harry agreed on principle, she had never even considered asking him in any way. What was worse was that when she stopped giving him the love potions (plural) she expected him to still love her. Of course the fact that he was stuck with her nearly made him kill them both out of revenge.

After that, he tried to turn to his friends. They all turned their backs on him. Ron revealed that he and Hermione had been paid to keep tabs on him since second year. Ron had been ordered to befriend Harry on the train. Neville had been blackmailed into spying on Harry to have a hope of healing his parents. Only Luna was honestly a friend, but she could do nothing to help.

When Dumbledore murdered Luna to try and force him closer to Ginny Harry snapped. He left England, and spent years searching for a way back in time. He found a ritual to do so. Before he left however he trained himself in various methods of dueling and magical construction. He learned everything he believed he would need to survive in the past.

With Dumbledore actively hunting him, and Ginny hidden in the old Horcrux Lake, dosed with the Drought of Living Death, Harry performed the ritual, only seconds before Dumbledore blew down the door and struck him with an Avada Kedavra.


	2. Planing

Harry thought hard about his new memories. He quickly began to practice Occlumency and Legilimency as fanatically as he had in the future. Harry had learned that Dumbledore had cast spells on him to drive magical power away from his mind. This made him a more powerful wizard, but it also made him rather stupid, and more importantly left his mind an open book.

Harry in his travels after leaving Britain got those spells reversed in a Chinese ritual of censing. It made him a weaker dueler, and less powerful wizard, but it also helped him develop the mind arts to an amazing degree.

Living under the stairs for almost a month before his first Hogwarts letter Harry found time to refine his mental abilities in secret. Harry also discovered that there were wards over his cupboard to make him meek and shy. With his mental abilities he blocked them out, but it proved without a shadow of a doubt (not that he had any doubts) that Dumbledore had planed to use him from the moment his scar was etched on his forehead.

Harry reviewed his other skills in the time before his Hogwarts letter. He would not be as powerful as he was last time around. But this time he had other advantages. His spells were more efficient and direct than last time, he had years of knowledge, and he could see and manipulate magic wandlessly.

That was a skill taught by the Native Americans of North America. A skill that let their shamans see and change existing magic, which had given them a small edge over the European Wizards during the colonization of the New World. Unfortunately for them, the wand based European magic's were more versatile and direct then the wandless energy manipulations of the Native Americans, and they were defeated time after time.

Harry had been forced to a hidden camp in Canada in order to study with the survivors of the Shaman scattering.

Now those skills would prove very useful. He could use no magic at all while under the Dursly's roof. It would alert Dumbledore that he was not just a pliable little weapon anymore. Dumbledore's wards over him and his "family" were even more extensive than he had realized before.

No, Harry would have to wait until he got to Hogwarts before he could begin practicing his magic again. Harry planed to do things a bit different this time around, needless to say. Last time Harry had not realized just how useful various magic's, artifacts, and creatures were until it was too late.

This time he planed to take what he could and not hold back. The Philosophers Stone would be exceedingly useful to him, as would a pet basilisk. He also intended to use Japanese meditative trances to isolate the Horcrux in his mind and force the link the other way.

If he could manage that, then he could track Riddle and destroy his mind whenever he felt like it. Meaning he would probably wait until Riddle was resurrected, then manipulate Riddle into killing, or at least weakening Dumbledore. Once he outlived his usefulness Harry could simply terminate his mind, and send him against his own followers.

No more Death Eater problem.

Harry had many of his own plans already established before he traveled back in time, now was the time to put those plans into action.

He could build whatever he needed, enchant what he wanted, and this time, he would be the one doing the manipulating, and he would make sure that Dumbledore was his primary target. Of course if a few traitors got killed in the crossfire so much the better.

He knew that this time he would need to be careful cunning and smart. He had already decided that he would accept no house but Ravenclaw as he knew Luna was going to be there. He would make sure that he was a better friend to her this time. She was truly the only one he could trust in the magical world.

The Order was made up of Dumbledore's puppets, and the Ministry was so corrupt that the Death Eater moles were hardly necessary.

No, Harry would be in Ravenclaw and he would befriend Luna, and kill Dumbledore as soon as he could without getting caught. Only this time he would make sure the bastard was actually dead.


	3. You Can Run

"Boy get up!" Uncle Vernon roared. Harry groaned as his eyes opened.

"Yes Uncle Vernon." Harry replied.

Harry knew that today was the day when his letter arrived. He also knew that Dumbledore had planed out the cross country chase with Hagrid so as to make him meet and trust Hagrid and through him, Dumbledore. Harry had every intention of letting it happen again, only this time he would manipulate the Dursley's minds so that they never got caught by Hagrid on that island. Maybe Dumbledore would come himself if they were on the run for a few months? Who knew.

Harry crawled out of his cupboard and began making breakfast. The Dursleys mostly ignored him, as he was able to serve the food fast enough.

"Bring me my coffee boy." Uncle Vernon yelled at him.

Well maybe not fast enough.

They all heard the postman leave the mail.

"Get the post boy" Petunia said spitefully. Harry got up from the table and collected the post. As he returned to the kitchen, he made sure that his Hogwarts letter was visible.

"Daddy the freak has a letter!" Duddly called out quickly.

'Thank you Duddly.' Harry thought. 'And cue Vernon.'

"Stealing post now boy?" Vernon spat as he took the letter from Harry.

Harry watched with interest as Vernon took the letter, and read who and where it was addressed to. He paled dramatically.

"Petunia" Vernon said softly his hands shaking.

"What is it Vernon?" Petunia asked. Vernon simply held out the letter. Petunia also paled. "Burn it" she hissed.

Harry made sure to keep his face confused and scared. Duddly on the other hand started demanding to know what the letter said. For the first time Harry could remember the Dursleys denied their son something and burned the letter quickly.

Each day more letters arrived. Harry already knew what they said, so didn't bother fighting his relatives for them.

After a few weeks Vernon once again decided that they were going to make their escape. With letters flying everywhere, the Dursley's and Harry loaded up the car and took off.

As soon as the Dursleys car passed the town line Harry let out a cheer.

"What's wrong with you freak!" Petunia snapped. "Dudley hit him!"

Harry could not stop grinning. "That's a bad idea Dudley. Trust me, this time you won't like the consequences." Dudley of course ignored him and tried to punch him in the back of a moving car, bad idea.

Before Dudley's fist could hit him, Harry reached out with his mind and simply froze his muscles. It was not particularly hard to do, his cousin's mind was unprotected and he just reached in, and told all of the muscles to tense up and stay that way.

Dudley froze.

"What did you do to my baby you freak!" Petunia shrieked.

"Boy" Vernon roared. It was supposed to scare him. It didn't.

Harry simply glared at his aunt and said "here's the deal, we are being hunted by a wizard. You know that already. What you don't know is that there have been magical fields set up around your house to make you abusive and cruel, while simultaneously making me shy meek, and weak."

Petunia was gaping at him.

"Further more" Harry continued "your house and family have been under magical surveillance since I was left on your doorstep. Now, there is no real way for us to avoid them unless we immediately leave the country. Since I know there is a better chance of pigs flying unaided I suggest that we never stop moving. I would also suggest that after September first assuming we remain free that we split up, me with one adult, Dudley with the other, so as to make us even harder to track."

Dudley, still frozen widened his eyes in shock, Vernon, who had heard the whole thing was having trouble driving. Petunia was as frozen as Dudley; she suddenly realized just what was going on.

"Yes _aunt_ Petunia, you never did escape her world, it has been interfering in your life for the past eleven years." Harry said.

"No, no, no, no, NO!" Petunia started crying softly.

Harry reached out and shifted her mind so that she wanted to escape the 'freaks' more than she was afraid of what would happen if they were caught.

The Dursleys and Harry continued to drive until they reached a motel. Once there they checked in and got a two person room. Petunia and Vernon got the bed, Dudley the couch and Harry the floor.

While they were sleeping Harry changed their minds so they would trust and believe him, and would obey him in a crisis. More importantly he set up a mental program in all three so that if anyone else tried to enter their minds in any way they would forget everything from the day the first letter arrived onwards. He also set it up so that he could to the erasing manually as it were.

With that done, he went to sleep, already with a plan on how to bedevil Dumbledore for a few months.


	4. Golden Slip

The next morning Harry woke before his relatives. He inserted his plan to hide from wizards within their minds. Once they awoke, he cooked breakfast and the Dursleys checked out of the motel.

Quickly they drove off towards a train station, where they got on a train bound for London, leaving the car with the tracking spell on it in the lot. Unknown to the Dursleys, but known to Harry Hagrid had just lost track of them. Of course this did not mean they were safe, quite the opposite, Dumbledore still had his tracking charms on Harry, and so would soon be sending another person after them.

When the train ride ended the Dursleys flagged down a cab, and the foursome drove over to a restaurant for lunch. Harry was able to keep his scar hidden, just in case a wizard was present in the restaurant.

After lunch the Dursleys went for a movie, while Harry was left outside. While he could have forced them to buy a ticket for him, he didn't. This actually fitted in with his plans quite well. He quickly transferred the tracking charms on him over to Duddly, and then left for the Leaky Cauldron.

He walked along the road, and was surprised that no one seemed to notice a ten year old on the street alone. 'Londoners' Harry thought to himself, 'they never notice things unless they are shoved right under their noses'.

It took a little while, but he made it to the Leaky Cauldron and stepped inside. Knowing his time was limited, he quickly passed through and (after tapping the bricks with his finger) entered Diagon Ally. He walked into Gringotts and up to a teller.

"May I help you?" the goblin sneered at him.

"Yes, I would like to transfer all of my gold and possessions out of this bank and into a secure trunk blood warded to me.

The goblin looked up startled. "And what is vault number?" he asked shakily.

"Vaults 687 and 625" Harry said firmly.

The goblin looked even more nervous hearing that there were multiple vaults under the control of this human, and both were rather low and thus held valuables.

"I see, and do you have the required keys for the exchange?" the goblin said menacingly.

"Yes" Harry said shortly, pulling out two ornate golden keys. The keys were fakes, transfigured out of leaves and trash, but they would fit the vaults, and had the same goblin enchantments as the originals, so the switch should go unnoticed.

"Very well, this way." The goblin said swiftly. Harry and the goblin went into a side office where Harry picked out a trunk he could use as a portable vault. Then another goblin escorted him to his gold vault.

The Potters had divided their wealth into two separate vaults long ago, and the tradition seemed to stick around. The first vault was the gold vault, which held a decent amount of gold. The second was a possession vault, used to store everything from furniture, to jewelry, to enchanted weapons and legal documents.

Quickly Harry emptied both vaults of everything, and then shrunk the trunk and put it in his pocket. He then retreated to the lobby, where he exchanged a few hundred _galleons for muggle currency._ Realizing that his time was nearly up, Harry thanked the goblin for his help, and left the bank.

He took a cab from the Leaky Cauldron back to the theater where the Dursleys were. Less then ten minutes latter the Dursleys left the theater, and Harry transferred the tracking charms back onto himself.

Once again the Dursleys rented a hotel room, and Harry again got the floor, but this time he was satisfied, his money, and quite a bit of evidence against Dumbledore was now stored in his trunk.


	5. Phase One Begins

With his money safe in his blood warded trunk, Harry now felt secure enough to begin the next phase of his plan. He manipulated the minds of the Dursleys into wanting to leave London quickly. They decided to head to Birmingham, and they left on the train the same day. Harry didn't much care where they went at this point; he knew he could make untraceable port keys to wherever he needed to go.

Moving around was purely to bedevil and confuse anyone tracking them, specifically Dumbledore, and to keep from being trapped in a place where they could be coerced.

As the Dursley's went to sleep in a hotel that night, Harry entered his trunk, looking for a certain deed. He found it. The deed was for a few played out mines that the Potters had owned for about a century. Unfortunately for the Potters the mines were quickly played out, and they were in Switzerland, so they were not readily accessible from Britain.

They were perfect. Harry made sure that the Dursley's stayed asleep with a few wandless charms, and then made his first (in this time) untraceable portkey. Leaving the Dursleys to their slumber, Harry portkeyed to an open looking field in the Scottish highlands. The only clue that this field was inhabited was a small door in the hill side, and footprints scattered everywhere.

Harry walked up to the door and knocked. It took a few minutes for the door to open, and when it did, he saw not the armed guards he expected but just one middle-aged unarmed dwarf. The dwarf looked at the skinny eleven year old human standing in front of him.

"We are not taking in orphans little human." The dwarf said nastily. "Go away and find humans to take care of you."

Harry was for a moment taken aback by the obvious hostility that the dwarf had for humans. He remembered Lockhart had hired some dwarves for Valentines Day second year, so he had expected to at least be heard out before having the door slammed in his face.

"I can assure you sir; I am not looking for my family. I am looking for you and your people, hopefully to arrange a mutually beneficial agreement." Harry said quietly, but he laced his words with subtle power.

The dwarf was also taken aback. He had thought this was just a little lost human, but he seemed to be looking for his people, and more importantly, he seemed powerful and honorable. The human was also showing him respect, something that few humans bother with among their own kind let alone his own. Never the less he was skeptical that this human could do anything to help his people except hiring them for another degrading job.

"And just what is this 'mutually beneficial agreement'?" the dwarf asked watching the human closely.

Harry was surprised; the dwarf seemed to go from hostile to cautiously optimistic in the space of a few seconds.

"That is an arrangement that can only be between myself and your clan chief." Harry said firmly. "However I hope that we can come to an honorable agreement that benefits both of us. May I come in?" Harry asked.

The dwarf was now more impressed with the skinny human boy. The boy had skillfully avoided his verbal trap, and had done it in a way that made the dwarf respect him even more.

"Of course, however the clan chief is rather busy, it may take awhile before you are able to see him." The dwarf said as he ushered the boy inside and closed the door.

Harry looked around. The tunnel he was in was definitely dwarf work, straight and rather low. As an eleven year old he didn't have to worry about the ceiling, but most humans would.

On the other hand it was painfully obvious that the dwarves were in dire straights and the land they were on was unsuitable for their way of life. The tunnel went through crumbling earth not rock, and portions of the tunnel looked like the ceiling could fall in on a moments notice. Some places looked like it had already happened, holes in the ceiling, between support struts.

The dwarf that Harry met at the door led him through the tunnel. The tunnel sloped down and deeper into the hillside. Unfortunately the state of the tunnel did not much improve. There were other tunnels leading off who knows where, but Harry saw only a few other dwarves who quickly got out of the way.

After a long walk, through tunnels with dust and pebbles scattered everywhere and torches few and far in-between, Harry arrived in a small chamber, it was about the size of a classroom at Hogwarts, and he was told to wait there until the chief was ready to receive him.

As the dwarf left, Harry went through his plan one more time. Then he began practicing mental dueling against himself. Basically he divided his mind into two halves, and then practiced attack and defending his mind from both sides. He used legilimency, occlumency, and telepathy to duel himself.

After his right side won the duel he began to wonder what was going on. Then the door to the inner chamber opened and a dwarf stepped out.

"The Clan chief will see you now." was all he said. Harry stood up, and followed the dwarf into the inner chamber. Phase one was now in progress.

AN

The evidence against Dumbledore within Harry's vault will be revealed in time, Snape will NOT be nice, but he may be useful. Harry will not try and meet Luna before Hogwarts, Dumbledore will be keeping to close of an eye on Harry after his muggle vacation with his relatives (what's happening now) for Harry to go anywhere else. That's why Harry is trying to get everything done NOW before Dumbledore gets to suspicious about his actions.

I'm glad many of you are enjoying the story, and I hope that you review in the future.


	6. Phase One Complete

Harry walked into the Clan chief's audience chamber, and was quite frankly stunned. The chamber was no better than the rest of the tunnels. The walls were rickety at best, and the ceiling was just as low.

Harry remembered from his lessons that dwarves preferred to awe visitors with their wealth and their architecture. If this was the best they could manage then they were even worse off than Harry had thought.

Harry walked up toward the dwarf who could only be the Clan chief. He sat on a chair of carved granite, and his clothing, while not rich, was well kept and intact. That was more than Harry could say about most of the dwarves. Their clothing seemed to be dirty, ripped, old, and rarely fit properly.

Harry stopped a few steps away from the chief and bowed toward him. Murmurs swept the room as the dwarves watching were surprised by his obvious show of respect to their leader.

"Chief Nordock, you honor me by granting me an audience." Harry said.

The dwarves all looked surprised, both his words and posture gave them respect that they had not had from humans in a very long time.

The Clan chief was even more surprised that the puny human boy knew his name. That meant that either the human was looking for his clan specifically, or he had done some serious research to discover his name, possibly both. Wizards rarely went to such lengths for the sake of magical creatures of any type, but especially not dwarves. He was intrigued.

"What is your name human?" the Clan chief asked.

"Harry Potter, Chief Nordock." Harry replied.

More murmurs spread through the room. Even though the wizard war of a decade past was of little interest to the dwarves, some had heard the name Harry Potter, and remembered that he had destroyed the last dark lord of wizard kind.

The Clan chief was one of the few that recognized the name, and he was even more surprised that a famous wizard, at least by their own standards, was showing such respect to him.

"And why are you here Harry Potter?" the clan chief asked him solemnly.

Harry was elated, he had been asked, that meant that the chief was interested, or at the very least curious.

"I am here to hire your clan for a rather difficult job." Harry said "A job that cannot be done by wizards even if there were any I trusted with the task, which I don't."

Now it was not murmurs, but shock that ran through the room. A wizard, a rather famous one at that, was telling them that he needed something that only they could do, and that even if others could do it he would not trust them to do it right. That was more respect than they had been shown in a very long time.

"What is this task?" the chief asked, now more curious than before.

"I want you to remodel the Chamber of Secrets into a barracks, wartime command center, and fortress, protected from any and all attacks." Harry said firmly.

The Chief could have sworn that his heart stopped beating.

Harry continued. "I also want the current passageways that go from the Chamber out into the rest of the school to be modified so as to allow any place in the school to be either attacked from, or evacuated to the Chamber."

The dwarves were looking at Harry in complete shock.

Harry stood in front of the Clan chief, doing his very best to show no nervousness. He knew that it was a big job, but if they could do it, it would be the perfect fortress. He would be able to use his enemy's most powerful fortifications to shield his own base.

The dwarves were still trying to absorb what they had heard. Then Harry, who simply could not bare the silence in the room when he was so tense, spoke.

"This job will have to be done in complete secrecy, no one within or outside the castle can be allowed to know what is happening."

The dwarves were now calculating. They knew that if they had the time, money, tools, and population they could get the job done easily and quickly. Unfortunately, they had none of that. The job would take more time than they thought the human wanted, at least a decade. Worse, they did not have the money to make tools, they had no tools, and they did not have the workers to use the tools even if they had them.

"What would the payment be for this job?" the chief asked quietly, and when must it be completed?"

Harry smiled.

"The payment would be a played out mine complex in Switzerland, that you could do with what you wish. Mountain halls, mining deeper into the earth, create a new dwarven nation, whatever you want. And if you do very well I _might_ be able to get you a small Philosopher's Stone. No guarantee's but it's possible." Harry said.

When he heard that the chief's heart really did stop beating for a few beats. This human boy was offering him the chance to rebuild his race. He was offering him and his Clan a worthy honorable job, with a payment that was virtually priceless as the reward for completion.

He was also being honorable in not guaranteeing something that he only might be able to do. Of course that opened up questions like 'how does a boy know where the Chamber of Secrets is and how to open it' and 'why does the boy think he will have access to the Philosopher's Stone'.

Harry continued. "As for completion, its absolute deadline is October 31st 1992. However if it could be completed before then it would be nice."

The Clan chief was doing some math in his head.

"The earliest date we could complete the renovation by would be December 1992, I'm sorry." The chief said. He was rather disappointed that he would have to give up on this; it was one of the most promising deals he heard in decades.

Harry smiled again. "What if you and you people did not have to farm for food during that time, and I supplied the gold for purchasing tools?" Harry asked innocently.

The Clan chief looked up sharply. "How?" he asked simply.

Harry spoke quickly. "My family had a few farms and properties before the last war. They are still in the family being looked after by family elves. The elves would be very happy farming for and feeding your people while you work for me. I could also buy some more house elves from Hogwarts and they could help you clean the Chamber, and keep your work areas clear."

The chief's jaw dropped.

"So under those conditions how long would it take?" Harry asked with a small grin.

The chief grinned back and said "A tad less time I think." The chief stood up and stretched out his hand. "Mr. Potter you have a deal."

(A/N) I am sorry that Harry won't be meeting Luna until next year, but considering what Dumbledore is going to be doing, and more importantly what Harry is going to be doing, he won't have the time or security to contact her outside of Hogwarts this year.

I'm sorry, last chapter I forgot that Harry needed to change his tracking charms onto Dudley before he went to meet the dwarves. So just pretend he did, because I don't want Dumbledore becoming suspicious just yet.

I deliberately made this Harry more cunning and more intelligent than the original because I felt that in the books he was a real idiot. I mean he goes after a priceless magical artifact with only his eleven year old friends for backup and then he goes into a hidden chamber with someone he KNOWS is a fraud who will oblivate them if he has a chance. Then he tries to capture Pettigrew, but didn't even think to I don't know STUN HIM? I mean come on, the guy is an idiot.

This way, he has very powerful mental abilities. More powerful than Dumbledore and Voldemort combined, but he is also a much weaker wizard. This means no super powered spells, but more manipulation.

Harry is going to be fighting this time not as the Warrior leading the charge but as the General who comes up with ways for his troops to defeat the enemy.

I do have a question for you readers. Should Harry have knowledge of and use rituals? I am planning on him using more wandless based magic such as runes, potions, wandless spells, enchanted artifacts, and the like, but I'm not sure if I want him to use rituals for more than one or two things. (Those rituals are essential, and WILL be done; I'm just not sure if I want Harry to do too many of them.) Any opinions are welcome, but please try to give a reason other than

"No! Rituals bad, Harry should not use them!"

I mean that's useful, it gives me your opinion, but it doesn't tell me _why._ And that is the thing that interests me.

Sorry this A/N is so long. I'll stop talking now.


	7. Phase Two Begins

Deep within the Dwarves Hall Harry continued his negotiations.

"While I am sure that your Clan could do the job on it's own chief Nordock, I would ask that you work together with the other dwarven clans that I am hoping to hire." Harry said firmly. "This job must be perfect, and there are other jobs that must be done besides just carving the stone. I would like dwarven rune magic to be carved into almost every door, entrance, tunnel, and tile within the chamber."

The dwarves were now looking at Harry in even greater shock. While it was once common knowledge that the dwarves were the greatest of all rune masters, that information had been lost to wizard kind for many years. They had simply forgotten because the dwarves were not considered good workers.

This prejudice came from the fact that there were laws that prohibited dwarves from doing a great many jobs. The laws were written so as to appease the goblins that were willing to fight wars to gain an economic stranglehold on wizarding Britain. Before that, dwarves had been the goblins main competition, not any more.

The fact that this human knew of their past glories was even more impressive given the fact that few records existed showing dwarves in a positive light. The goblins had made sure of that.

The Clan chief considered the offer, and then spoke. "How many clans are you hoping to hire for this job?" he asked in concern. If there were too many then his clan could get shunted to the side.

"I am hoping to hire your clan as well as Chief Dormon's and Chief Vengort's Clans." Harry replied.

Chief Nordock nodded then said "If I might make a suggestion Mr. Potter, hire one Clan to do the mining, another for the rune work, and the third for designing and building the buildings within the chamber."

Harry thought about it. He had planed on just having all of the dwarves work together, but this would actually be far better. All of the jobs would get done at once, and better yet there would be competition between the dwarven Clans, making them more likely to do the job above and beyond what was desired.

Harry grinned. "Excellent idea Chief Nordock, would you like to make your selection now?"

The Clan chief also smiled. "I believe my Clan would be best for the interior design of the fortress."

Harry nodded. "That's fine, but there will be some buildings I will want built a certain way." Harry smiled "I'm hoping to create the first magical weapons factory."

The Clan chief and his advisors could not be any more shocked than they already were.

Chief Nordock agreed and Harry left the Dwarves with the location of the outer entrance of the chamber and the date when he would be able to open it for them. The dwarves were revitalized and quickly began preparations for the job that would put their race back on it's feet.

Harry took his portkey back to the Dursleys and went to sleep that night very satisfied.

The next day, Harry and the Dursleys moved to a different hotel. They stayed at that hotel for three days while the Dursleys waited to see if any letters came to them (they did) before moving again.

In those three days Harry contacted the other two dwarven Clans and got their support. The other Clans would each get a Potter mine complex in Switzerland.

Harry did not have all that much gold. His parents had been moderately wealthy people, and he had taken all of the gold they had stored in Gringotts, but even so, he was essentially funding the purchase of three clans worth of tools, AND he was planning on buying a few house elves from Hogwarts. Sufficed to say he was going to run out of gold. The only real question was if he was going to run out of gold before he got access to the Philosophers Stone.

He hoped not, but if it happened it happened.

The next few weeks were not all that interesting. He managed to keep the Dursleys on the move, and while the letters could still find them, by the time whoever Dumbledore had after them arrived, they were already gone.

On the dwarven front things were going exceptionally well. He had managed to get his elves to begin farming and delivering food again, and he had let the dwarves into the Chamber of Secrets using the outer entrance located in the Forbidden Forest.

He had ordered the dwarves to leave the chamber behind the statue of Salazar alone and to not even open it unless he was with them. Once he told them that there was a Basilisk in there in an enchanted sleep, the dwarves were delighted to comply.

But, like all good things, his vacation had to come to an end. It was August 10th and the Dursleys were once again in a hotel (a rather expensive hotel as Petunia refused to stay anywhere else) when there was a knock on the room door.

Harry, who was sitting on the floor reading a book while the Dursleys watched TV, looked up at the door and saw a moderately powerful magical aura. He immediately recognized the aura as it had a cat within it.

"Get the door boy! And be polite!" Vernon yelled at him from the other room.

Harry put his meek face on, and went to see his transfiguration teacher.

Harry opened the door slowly and looked around. Sure enough professor McGonagall stood there wearing her traditional robes and hat.

"Yes, may I help you?" Harry asked quietly looking at his shoes. He knew that he had to appear weak in McGonagall's memory, or Dumbledore would never believe his act.

"Yes, my name is Minerva McGonagall, are your aunt and uncle available?" McGonagall asked.

"I'll see if they are." Harry said meekly. He turned and went into the room with the TV. "Uncle Vernon a woman named McGonagall wants to talk to you." Harry said called once he was in the room.

Vernon looked up from the TV. "Well invite her in boy! Don't leave the woman standing in the hallway!" Vernon yelled.

"Yes uncle Vernon." Harry said as he backed out of the room. As he did he saw the Dursleys turn off the TV and sit down on the couch waiting for McGonagall to come in?

Harry returned to the door, still looking at his shoes. "You can come in now Ms. McGonagall." Harry said shyly.

McGonagall frowned and said "Professor actually Mr. Potter. I teach at a special school in Scotland."

Harry kept his head down while smiling to himself. Professor McGonagall was a far better introducer of the magical world than Hagrid. Hagrid was just an innocent bumbling man who was fanatically loyal to Dumbledore.

Harry led McGonagall into the room where the Dursleys were waiting. As soon as Petunia caught sight of McGonagall she paled the color of bone.

"No" she whispered.

McGonagall and Harry walked into the room. McGonagall quickly drew her wand and conjured a chair for herself and Harry. She then sat down. Harry followed suit.

"Now Mrs. Dursley, your nephew has been accepted to go to Hogwarts. Seeing as I introduced your sister to the wizarding world years ago, I know that you knew what was going on. Care to explain why you have been running hither and thither all over Britain?" McGonagall asked sternly.

Even with Occlumency helping him keep control of his face, Harry nearly laughed at his aunt's face.

As Petunia sputtered McGonagall turned to Harry. "Mr. Potter you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This is your acceptance letter." She said handing to him.

Harry opened the letter, read the familiar words and looked back up, face blank. "Ok" he said.

McGonagall sat back obviously startled. "That's it? Ok?" McGonagall said in surprise.

"Yes" Harry said innocently "I'm a wizard, I'm going to a wizard school. What else am I supposed to say?"

McGonagall just shook her head. This was one of the strangest introductions she had ever heard of.

"Very well then" she began only to be interrupted.

"He will NOT be going!" Vernon shouted his face purple with rage. "We swore when we took him in to beat that freakishness out of him! I will not pay to turn him into a more powerful freak!" Vernon screamed.

McGonagall sat in shock as Vernon shouted at her. But when Vernon went towards her with his fists raised she acted. Quickly she aimed her wand at him and cast.

"Petrificus totalus" she said firmly and Vernon tumbled to the floor helpless.

"Mr. Dursly, I appreciate your views, even if I disagree with them, but in civilized society violence is not the way to settle an argument."

Turning to Petunia she said "Your nephew has been accepted by Hogwarts. You will allow him to go and you will let him return to your home during the summer. That is all." She said firmly.

Harry was struggling with himself. 'Do not laugh, do not laugh, do not laugh!' was running through his mind as he looked at the Dursleys.

McGonagall then beckoned Harry and walked out of the room. Harry jumped up and followed her.


	8. Owl less shoping

Harry followed McGonagall out of the hotel, making sure to change the Dursley's minds way out. He inserted another complex mental program that would prevent them from actively trying to kill him when he returned. He knew that he needed them to be abusive to keep up appearances, but he refused to let them try and kill him again.

He followed McGonagall to the street, where she called down the Night Bus. Pretending to watch in awe, Harry followed her onboard.

It was not long before he started asking her questions expected of him.

"So magic is real?" Harry asked as they rode along.

"Yes, it is used by many wizards and witches to make their lives easier and to complete otherwise impossible jobs." McGonagall replied.

"What kind of wizard jobs are there?" Harry asked

"There are all sorts of jobs in the wizarding world. Ministry jobs in government, shops in Hogsmead and Diagon Ally, curse breakers, and warders, quidditch players, and bankers. We have an entire society." McGonagall said, simply rattling off some of the more basic jobs in the wizarding world.

Harry then asked the required questions about school supplies and money. After getting the same answers as Hagrid had given him he waited to get into Diagon Ally.

Going though the Leaky Cauldron this time around was far easier as he kept his head down, hiding his eyes and scar. More importantly McGonagall did not make a big deal about Hogwarts business and naming him in the middle of the pub.

Walking through Diagon Ally the pair went up to Gringotts.

Harry _knew_ that the goblins were not trustworthy. After all their entire culture revolved around gold, and getting as much of it as possible. Unfortunately to stay under the radar he would have to keep his small trust vault under goblin control, a least for the time being.

After getting a small sack of Galleons, Harry and McGonagall went shopping for his supplies. Of course this time he did not get Hedwig, he loved her, but he also knew that she was given to him on Dumbledore's orders. After all, a very distinctive owl makes it very easy to trace who Harry was sending messages to.

In Madam Malkins Harry noticed Draco getting fit for robes, but he simply ignored him and continued on. Olivanders was the same. Just as creepy, and it took just as long to get his wand. Harry knew this wand would be useful, but he also knew that there were so many spells placed on it by Dumbledore that it was all but useless.

Dumbledore made Harry more powerful originally, and he knew that if Harry was so obviously powerful Harry would be scanned and his mental power spells would be dispersed. To prevent that from happening Dumbledore had put power reduction charms on Harry's wand. This would be problematic now, as Harry was now actually only a shade above average in magical power.

Of course, Harry planed on removing those spells wandlessly as soon as he got to Hogwarts. But Dumbledore would not be able to find out, simply because Harry would be using the same amount of power that he should be using. It would just be because he didn't have more power, not because his wand was blocked.

After getting his school supplies and his wand, Harry was escorted back to Privet Drive by McGonagall. They waited while the Dursleys went back to the station, and then drove home.

After the Dursleys arrived McGonagall left and Harry was back to being barely fed and beaten. But this time he knew it was his choice, and it was only to keep Dumbledore off his back. He only had to endure it for nineteen days.

A/N)

I fully admit that I have taken ideas from other fan fictions that I have read, both consciously, and unconsciously. These include (but are not limited to)

Partially Kissed Hero

30 Minutes that Changed Everything

All Through the Night

Ascension of the Scorpion Sorcerer

Aspirations

Awakening of the Serpents' Avatar

Harry Potter and Godric's Legacy

Harry Potter and the Nightmares of Futures Past

Harry Potter and the Quantum Leap

Harry Potter: Dark Memories

Identity

In this World and the Next

Knowledge is Power

Poison Pen

RuneMaster

I suggest that everyone reads at least some of these, all are very good. Oh, and if the authors of these stories are reading this, stop, and go back to writing the stories that everyone loves so much.

If you think that I have stolen an idea from you, PM me and if I've read the story I'll give you credit. Of course, nothing we really have is original. I've read two fan fictions that each used ideas I swear I came up with before reading them. I guess when you have 470,000 plus stories it's hard to be completely original.

Review please, I'm making this story up as I go along for the most part, so if there is something you want to see, tell me in a review and you may just see it.

Next chapter gets us to the train, and the first real substantive differences begin.


	9. A Cold Begining

Finally! September 1st! Harry was ecstatic. It was finally time to leave this hellhole. Ever since McGonagall's visit Harry's life at number 4 had been made into living hell thanks to his _relatives_. He knew that it was necessary, but that didn't mean he had to like it. But now, now he was ready to get moving.

He had to call the Night Bus this time to get to the station, but he considered that to be a bonus not a hassle. He took his trunk and his other supplies to the road, and flagged down the bus. After paying for his seat, he just let the bus take him to the train station.

Harry got off the Night Bus and walked through the crowds of muggles to get to the platform. He saw the Weasleys moving through the crowd towards him, and this time he could hear their thoughts.

Molly was looking around for him, hoping that Dumbledore was right and they could easily get the Boy-Who-Lived to trust them.

Ron was running through the lines he had been ordered to say to Potter once he found him.

Ginny was looking forward to seeing the hero of the Boy-Who-Lived, and her future husband.

The twins were just glad to be going back to Hogwarts and were hoping that the Potter money would help them start their dream of a joke shop.

Harry intended to disappoint them all. He slipped onto the platform, and quickly boarded the train, using a bit of wandless magic to help him get the trunk up onto the train. Then, being careful to avoid the Weasleys, he boarded the train.

He sat there for quite a while, and finally the train started moving. Harry knew that Ron would be coming to sit soon. He had every intention of letting him sit down, but that was as far as Ron's mission would proceed according to plan.

On cue, the door opened, and Ron stuck his head in.

"Do you mind if I sit here? Every where else is full." Ron said.

Harry simply nodded and let him sit down.

"Ron Weasley" Ron said after a few moments.

Harry just stared at him.

"And you are?" Ron asked a tad nervously.

Harry did not bother to answer. He just sat back and waited for stage two to show up. After a very long and very awkward (for Ron anyways) silence, the snack trolley showed up to break the ice (or so Ron thought). Harry on the other hand knew that Ron was planning on getting sympathy from him so they could spark a conversation. Harry did not intend to oblige him.

"Anything off the trolley dears?" the trolley lady asked.

"No thanks" Ron said looking glumly at his sandwiches.

Harry got up, browsed for a while and got a few small pieces of chocolate. He made sure that he ate them without even glancing at Ron. He knew that Ron was surprised at the cold shoulder he was receiving but Harry was just beginning.

At almost the exact moment he finished his chocolate the door opened and Draco Malfoy stepped into the compartment with his bodyguards.

"I heard that Harry Potter was on the train" Malfoy said arrogantly. "Are you him?" he asked.

"Yes" Harry said shortly.

Malfoy smiled "I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy. You'll soon learn that some wizarding families are better than others Potter; you don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there". Malfoy then extended his hand.

Still sitting, Harry cocked his head. Then he spoke. "I'm not sure that I agree with you that some families are _inherently_ better then others, but I do agree that I don't want to make friends with the wrong sort." With that he sent a glare over at Weasley. "I generally consider people who lie to me in their first sentence to be the wrong sort" he said sharply to Ron.

Ron paled considerably while Malfoy smirked.

Harry continued "That said I'm not sure that will need your help. However if I do, I'll be sure to ask you." Harry said. He then reached out and shook Malfoy's hand.

Ron looked like he had just gotten punched, and fell back into a pile of manure. His face was so purple it resembled a plum more than a tomato. Malfoy on the other hand looked extremely pleased with himself.

"Would you like to come and sit with us?" Malfoy asked sending a sneer at Weasley "Away from the filth."

Weasley jumped to his feet and looked ready to punch either Malfoy or Harry, and from what Harry could see in Ron's mind he wasn't sure who he wanted to punch either.

Harry responded as though Ron wasn't there. "I would, however I'm sure that you have friends who will not appreciate someone like me in their midst. If we are sorted into the same house perhaps we will speak then." Harry said firmly.

Malfoy nodded, and said "Hope to see you in Slytherin then Potter." Then he and his entourage turned and left.

Harry smiled as Weasley seemed to go into a fit of rage. He began ranting about Malfoys, Slytherins, and Death Eaters, to the point where Harry was tuning him out. In fact he continued yelling until the door opened again and Neville stuck his head in. It must have been a very strange sight. One eleven year old read haired boy yelling and screaming at the top of his lungs at a small black haired boy who seemed to be ignoring him.

'Um, excuse me? Have either of you seen a toad?" Neville asked nervously.

Harry looked up, and, ignoring the still ranting Ron, said "no I haven't, however you might want to ask an older student if they could perform a summoning charm for you. That would get him right back.

Neville nodded "Thanks" he said. He then left and walked away, having ignored the red haired boy just as the polite boy had done.

Harry knew that Neville had been forced to betray him, he hadn't wanted to. Still that meant that he could not be trusted. On the other hand Harry had no problem helping him out, and encouraging him, he just wouldn't trust him with anything.

Finally getting fed up with Ron's ranting, Harry spoke sharply. "Weasley, shut up" Harry followed that up with a glare. Finally Ron seemed to get the message and shut up. Harry basked in the silence.

Of course Granger would take that moment to open the door.

"Have any of you seen a toad? A boy named Neville has lost one."

Ron of course had no tact at all and spoke before Harry could open his mouth. "No we have not seen any bloody toad! And we told the same thing to the squib when he came in here. Now get out!"

Hermione looked extremely offended (no wonder) and left in a huff, slamming the door behind her.

Harry knew that Hermione had been bribed to spy on him, but he also knew that at this point she was still an innocent. Still the fact that she willingly sold him out made him consider her an enemy, no matter what happened now. Still, there was no reason for _Ron_ to consider her an enemy. He was just an arse, any way you slice it.

Ron didn't stop glaring at Harry the whole trip, but he frankly didn't care what Ron thought of him.

Finally as it was getting dark, Harry left the compartment, and went into the bathroom to get changed into his robes. After changing he returned to the compartment to find Ron going through his trunk. Harry didn't know why but this annoyed him even more than his fifteen minute rant about dark wizards and Slytherin.

Harry opened the compartment door loudly. "Looking for something Weasley?" Harry said coldly.

Ron jumped. "Just, uh, I mean, uh, I was, uh, looking for something, uh, that might, uh, you know, be uh, controlling you." He stuttered.

Harry looked at him like he was crazy. "Let me get this straight, you thought that after you lied to me about the train being full that I would suddenly become your best friend, and when I didn't and talked with someone who actually told me the truth, you thought I was being controlled by a spell."

Harry snorted to show his derision of that theory "Because of this fit of imagination you saw fit to break into my trunk, which contains private possessions of mine, to look for this fictional magical artifact, which you wouldn't have recognized even if it had existed, without asking permission first?" Harry asked incredulously.

Ron may have been thick but even he knew he made a mistake.

"I, uh, didn't want to upset you" Ron said weakly.

Harry just glared at him, walked forward, and slammed his trunk shut.

"Stay away from me Weasley" Harry hissed "I want nothing to do with you, you thief."

Ron had paled at Harry's threat, but his face turned solid red at Harry's insinuation.

Harry sat down, and Ron followed suit. Only a few minutes later the train stopped, and they disembarked.

Harry walked towards the lake at the same moment Harry began calling out

"Firs years over here! This way! Firs years!"

Harry avoided the crowds for the most part and got into an empty boat. Of course it didn't stay empty. Malfoy and his goons got into the boat with him.

As they rode across the lake Malfoy began pontificating on the subject of pure blood and Slytherin and how they were so superior.

Harry really couldn't care less what Malfoy said, he just waited until the boat docked and then started to examine the water entrance of Hogwarts. He knew that it was only used to bring in first years, but with gillyweed it could be the perfect place to launch a surprise attack from.

Harry heard Hagrid deliver them to professor McGonagall. He looked around, feigning curiosity and excitement.

After McGonagall's speech about the houses, and the screams of the first years seeing ghosts for the first time, McGonagall called them in. Harry walked into the hall that had so many good and bad memories for him, and one of the places he thought he would never see again.

A/N)

I hope you liked it, the sorting is next chapter.

Just to be clear Harry is not going to be buddies with Malfoy and his death nibblers, he's just using them to drive away Weasley and the rest of Dumbledore's spies.

This year will be rather short, simply because I can't wait for Ginny and more importantly Luna to arrive at Hogwarts.

Harry does have access to the chamber at the moment, but is hardly fit for him to use at the moment. The dwarves are working almost day and night to meet the deadline, so Harry will only be going there for a few short meetings to stay updated on how the renovations are coming.

Kudos to those who can figure out what the magical weapons factories will be producing.

The reason Harry want the chamber completed by Oct 31st 1992 is because that is when Ginny will be coming down possessed for the first time.


	10. Phase Three Shocks

As Harry walked into the great hall memories assailed him.

His first sorting, breakfast with his friends, yelling that Hermione didn't know about the troll, receiving his broom from McGonagall, and later his broom from Sirius. Watching Lockheart humiliate himself, the failure of the dueling club, and then watching his name fly out of the goblet. Umbrige and her speech, OWL's and the battle of Hogwarts. This room was one of the places where everything happened.

After going on the run, he had never expected to step foot on Britain again, let alone set foot in the great hall of Hogwarts. Yet here he was, walking into the hall with nervous first years surrounding him. Harry heard Hermione talking to Dean Thomas about the ceiling of the great hall. He almost smiled as he remembered the times before she had betrayed him to Dumbledore for a pittance.

The sorting began. After the Patil sisters were sorted, McGonagall called out

"Potter, Harry."

Harry walked forward and approached the Sorting Hat. Every eye was on him, and Harry realized that there would never be a better time.

"Hello Adrian" Harry said with a small smile.

The reactions were quite varied. Most of the students looked either awed or confused; the younger ones were the most confused. The staff however were all staring in shock. Dumbledore was the worst, his eyes were wide and his jaw had dropped.

'Oh dear, I may have just ruined Dumbledore's plans, how sad'. Harry thought.

The Sorting Hat's reaction was the most obvious however. It looked up; its brim gaped at him for a few seconds then said "blood begets blood Mr. Potter, and yours I recognize. I was beginning to wonder if you would ever show up."

Harry smiled softly and said as he picked up the hat, "I believe we should continue the sorting and speak later Adrian. The students are getting restless."

Putting the hat on his head, he opened his mind almost completely to the Sorting Hat. He kept some things back, but Adrian could see his life with the Dursleys, his years at Hogwarts, his battles against Voldemort, and later his desperate flight from England and his traitorous friends. He kept the knowledge of the ritual used to send back knowledge and personalities back in time to himself however. Adrian looked through his lives, and gasped out loud. The great hall heard him, and whispers got even more heated.

Snape was glowering at Harry though he could not see it, Harry felt his anger sharpen. Snape would pay for what he had done.

Dumbledore was looking on in worry, this was not supposed to happen, Harry was not supposed to know his heritage and his power, yet it seemed he already did, this was impossible, yet was happening. Hopefully the enchantments put on the Sorting Hat would ensure the proper placement for the boy, if not, then more aggressive actions might become necessary to contain and redirect him.

Meanwhile Adrian and Harry were discussing Harry's plan, and sorting. Adrian thought that he could fit into any of the houses except for Gryffindor, he was as loyal as a Hufflepuff, as cunning as a Slytherin, and as intelligent as any Ravenclaw, but he was no longer a weak willed brash Gryffindor. This was problematic as there were enchantments on the hat to force Harry into Gryffindor.

Adrian knew that he could not sort young Harry, or not so young Harry as the case may be, into Gryffindor, but unless Harry made a strong choice for another house he would have no choice. Fortunately Harry had already selected his house, and would not accept another one. This was sufficient to override the enchantments Dumbledore put on him, and Adrian called out "Ravenclaw!"

Harry removed the hat from his head, and calmly walked over to the shocked Ravenclaw table. He was half way there before the Ravenclaws realized what had happened and started clapping.

Dumbledore looked as though he had just been kicked in the face by a purple Kangaroo who had proceeded to cartwheel out of the hall. His face was a mixture of pain, disappointment, and extreme surprise.

Harry sat down among the Ravenclaws and looked up at McGonagall. After a few seconds, where everyone was whispering and pointing at him, or just staring in shock, Harry got fed up.

"Might we continue the sorting professor McGonagall, I would prefer to get to my dorm before sunrise" Harry said calmly, with a hint of sarcasm. It was after all only eight, and the sun would not rise for another nine hours.

McGonagall seemed to snap out of her shock, and the sorting resumed.

As the sorting finished the headmaster stood up and said his customary lines, and the feast promptly appeared.

Harry, having gone hungry for the last few weeks, began eating with gusto.

As the meal wound to a close the interrogation of Harry Potter began. Being Ravenclaws, there was no way he was going to avoid questioning, however after a few very carefully worded replies about his parents and scar, the real questions began.

"How did you know the sorting hat's name?" asked a black haired second year boy.

"How did you know it even _had_ a name?" Cho Chang asked eyes wide.

"Why did the hat gasp as it was sorting you?" this was from Michal Corner, a new first year.

Harry decided to answer all of the questions at once; it might slow them down deciphering his answers.

"I knew the Sorting Hat's name because I read it in a rare book pertaining to family magic, specifically my own family magic, most of which has been only recently been rediscovered.

'Let them try and puzzle that one out' Harry thought vindictively. He knew that these were the same people who had made life living hell for Luna, so he was more than prepared to give them hell in return.

He continued "The hat gasped as it was sorting me because it could not believe the physical and mental abuse that I managed to survive at the hands of the muggles that Dumbledore ordered to raise me. In fact, if it were not for my magic, it is highly unlikely that I would have survived the last few weeks of summer, as they were actively trying to starve me by keeping me locked in my cupboard under the stairs for two weeks straight."

Gasps and sounds of horror were heard, and many were looking at Dumbledore with a sense of disbelief.

"Were it not for the fact that they knew the wizards would find out what they had done, I'm sure they would have murdered me and dumped the body in a fire pit or lake somewhere. In fact, I'm sure that is what they intended to do, as laying in a cupboard, where you cannot even unfurl your legs fully, without food, water, or light for two weeks is generally fatal to muggle children. I'm sure they were hoping I was dead when they unlocked the cupboard this morning."

Many more gasps and looks of horror were expressed throughout the hall. It was quite obvious at this point that most of the hall was listening in. So Harry decided to add a bit of spice to the mix.

"Of course while guilty, my muggle relatives are not really the ones to blame, after all, they had compulsion wards all around their house to make them cruel and abusive."

Hundreds of eyes were glued to him now. Up on the staff table Dumbledore had paled the color of bone.

Harry continued. "Those wards interestingly enough also had detection charms woven into them so as to keep tabs on me at all times. I find it very interesting that those trackers, which would have recorded every beating, broken bone, cut, dog bite, and starvation rations, were all sending their information to Headmaster Dumbledore's office."

Now the reaction was even more shock than Harry's sorting. Every eye in the hall was looking at Dumbledore with fear, hatred or disbelief in their eyes. Even Snape was looking at Dumbledore like he had never seen him before.

Harry looked up at Dumbledore and asked angrily "So Dark Lord Dumbledore" gasps ran the room as the implications of that statement hit. "Care to explain why you felt it necessary to have my _relatives_" he spat the word like a curse "beat and starve me to the edge of death four hundred and sixty seven times?"

Every eye in the hall was now locked on Dumbledore.

(AN)

Sorry for the long wait, this story will be updated much slower now that I am back in school. I hope to get one chapter out a month at the very least, hopefully more but no guarantees.

All of the stories I named a few chapters back are on my favorites, for those who want to read them.

This is a HP/LL pairing she is one of the reasons why Harry is in Ravenclaw, and is also the reason that he came to Hogwarts in the first place.

Dumbledore currently knows that the Chamber of Secrets exists, but he does not know where any of the entrances are, or how to access them.

I am aware that many of my readers dislike the evil twins, but really, if Molly, Ginny, Ron, Percy, and Arthur are evil, and both Bill and Charlie will stand with their families against Harry, than it really is quite impossible for a pair of pranksters to be the only good apples in the bunch. Sorry.

I know that it seems odd that the entire family would know what is going on, and I apologize for that impression. Molly and Arthur know what is happening, Ron is just following orders at the moment, and Ginny has been programmed for Harry from day one. The twins just think that they are going to be conning Harry out of some gold, they don't know the whole plan.

The Dwarves will indeed stay off the Hogwarts intruder wards, in fact, unless people here them in the walls, they are unlikely to be found at all, by anything.

On the subject of Hermione, Harry hates the Hermione he knew, but he also knows that the Hermione now is still an innocent, unlike Ron. So while he is not going to go out and kill her, he is not going to help her in any fashion. If she ends up dancing with the troll again, well, that's too bad for her; Harry won't be running after her again. Of course this may be moot if Harry kills Ron before he can insult her after charms.

This story WIIL have the Deathly Hallows AND Horcruxes but they will be targeted sooner here. Because of this, Harry will not be casting power reduction curses on the Elder Wand, he might need it at some point, plus Dumbledore would figure out who did it and reverse it too fast to be of any use. Harry is trying to be both blatantly overt and angry, more importantly politically clumsy, at least somewhat, while in reality building up his REAL forces for a full scale revolution, but that won't be happening for a few more years. He needs to build his infrastructure, and start recruitment first.

Harry has to be very carful around anyone not named Luna Lovegood, simply because Dumbledore and Snape can both read minds. Fortunately they can't understand anything from Luna, and I'll get to why later.

This is a Dumbledore Bashing story.

To my readers, there is a poll on my profile asking about the troll and Hermione scenario, vote and I'll see which way you want this to go.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed, you guys keep me going.


	11. Stage Three Oops, Bye bye gold

Harry glared at Dumbledore; his eyes were burning with anger. The rest of the hall looked on with horrified fascination.

Harry was in truth not angry at all, he had learned a long time ago how to separate his mind from his emotions and lock them away. Still, the impression that he was trying to create was of an angry boy, who would be willing to do almost anything for vengeance on Dumbledore.

Harry was well aware that this would split the so called "light" side of the wizarding world, those who remained loyal to Dumbledore because he was the leader of the light, and those who could not abide the man because of what he had done to their "savior". Harry didn't particularly care about politics, except when it was a means to an end. In this case he was hoping that the Pureblood supremacists took control and gave him a large recruiting pool for his future war.

Dumbledore was looking around the hall, seemingly trying to find a friendly face, he wasn't finding one. Even Snape was looking at him like he was leper, blatant disgust within his eyes.

Harry grinned to himself, though nothing but rage showed on his face. In one day he had done more damage to Dumbledore and his plans than Voldemort in all his reign. Of course he had a few advantages.

Finally Dumbledore spoke, his voice shaking quite convincingly. "H-Harry" he began only to be interrupted.

"That is Mr. Potter to you _headmaster_" Harry said, spiting the last word as a curse.

Gasps ran through the room both at his tone, and the overt hostility Harry had for the headmaster.

"Y-yes Mr. Potter," Dumbledore stuttered.

Harry really had to give him credit, Dumbledore was a fantastic actor.

Dumbledore continued with his voice shaking "I can assure you that I had _no idea_ that your family was that bad. Whatever dark wizard told you that I had wards that influenced them in any way was lying to you, and the _idea_ that I would put monitoring charms on you is absurd."

Harry's smile turned predatory. "Oh I hope that quote makes it to the Prophet, I can't wait for the Goblins to react to being called 'dark wizards' by the leader of the light". Harry mocked Dumbledore's self given title.

Until now Harry knew that both he and Dumbledore were acting, trying to discredit one another and portray a bad first impression of one another at the beginning of the school year. But when Harry revealed his (false) source, Dumbledore flinched. Just slightly, but it was enough for Harry to know he had hit something important.

Then it dawned on him, the vault in Gringotts that had just been robbed had belonged to Hogwarts, and by extension, Dumbledore. If Dumbledore had done something to compromise the security of the bank (lets face it, who thinks that Quirril, even with advice from Voldemort could break into Gringotts and escape on his own) then the goblins must be seriously pissed at Dumbledore already.

If that quote made it back to their leadership, then it might just give the goblins an excuse to seize Dumbledore's assets within the bank. Harry knew that the goblins had no clue what kind of wards were around Privet Drive, but all things considered, they would probably run with the story, simply to have a legal excuse to steal all of Dumbledore's gold. Harry had known that the goblins would want the gold already, and so had decided to make them his fictitious "experts" who figured out the wards. Now it looked like he had made an even better play than he thought.

There was no way that Dumbledore kept all of his wealth in Gringotts, but every little hit he could make on him was a significant accomplishment. Taking out Dumbledore's publicly known wealth (not his hidden wealth unfortunately) would have a significant impact on his political capital, and possibly even the finances of Hogwarts itself.

Dumbledore, also recognizing the potential hornets' nest he had just thrown onto his own head tried to backtrack without giving away anything, and keeping the truth hidden, no easy task, even for him.

"Not to say your advisers are dark, Mr. Potter, I'm simply concerned as to the source of the obvious falsehoods you have been told. I worry that without proper confidants you might be taken advantage of by those who wish to use you for their own gain." Dumbledore said quickly, and then winced. He had just called the goblins dark, and then liars, then greedy thieves (though the last was true it was not permitted to be spoken of by treaty) this would not be good for him if it got into the press.

Harry glared. "If you think that I am going to forgive you for ten years of torture and confide in you and your blood covered hands then you must be insane and stupid to boot".

Dumbledore looked around the hall, seeing the confusion and hostility, mostly directed towards him. He knew that he had to end this quickly, and then figure out what had gone wrong with his plan.

Dumbledore spoke once more "I hope that you learn to trust me Mr. Potter, I will endeavor to earn your trust this year."

Harry snorted "Fat chance" he said loud enough to carry throughout the hall.

Ignoring Harry's comment Dumbledore ordered the prefects to shown the first years to their common rooms.

As they left the hall, Harry looked back, and saw Dumbledore leave the hall quickly, most likely to seal the owlery. He wouldn't be able to stop Harry however; Harry would make sure that an unauthorized portkey delivered his memory of the feast to the Prophet first thing the next morning.

H P H P H P H P H P H P H P H P H P H P H P H P H P

(A/N)

In regards to the wealth vs age of a family, we never actually see how wealthy the Potters are in cannon, other than a single vault that may or may not have been a trust vault, and a valuable invisibility cloak. The Malfoys were rich, but they were not an ancient or noble house, yet they had a manor, while the Most Ancient and Noble House of Black, quite obviously very old, was poor over all. They had some good silver ware, and a few relics, but other than that there was no evidence to support them being rich. The same is true of the Guant /Slytherins Pureblood? Yes. Rich? No. just look at Grimauld Place compared to Malfoy manor. In cannon the only thing that we really have that indicates Potter wealth is a vault, and I'm sure the Malfoy vault holds more as the Lestrange vault certainly did, and the Potter house in Godric's Hollow. That house was pretty modest; it was certainly closer to Grimauld Place than Malfoy Manor. From that I concluded that while old, the Potters were only moderately wealthy.

In the Hermione vs Ron, in the old timeline they were both equally guilty, both had sold him out. At this point however, Ron is actively trying to befriend Harry for only one reason, and that is to betray him. Hermione has as of now, done nothing, and so long as Harry does not trust her, she will likely not be bribed into spying on him. Yes it was her fault for accepting the bribes later on, but now she is an innocent who cannot be trusted, while Ron has proven already that he is an enemy from the get go.

Harry is not going to be a Dumbledore giving second chances to people. He is going to trust only a very few people with only a few small pieces of the puzzle. The only person on the planet that he trusts completely at the moment is Luna. Even Sirius will not be trusted fully because he was and is an Order member, and thus somewhat loyal to Dumbledore. Harry will be taking no chances at all, if he can help it, until he's ready to move in one smashing blow against his enemies.

Please review, and vote on what you want to happen to the troll/Hermione on my profile.

I'll try to get another chapter done by mid October, but no promises.


	12. Stage Three Results

Harry woke the next day with a start. After being on the run for so long, any movement around him would bring him awake and on guard in an instant. He looked around at his dorm mates. Terry Boot was unlikely to be a threat; however as a member of the DA he was a possible ally, at least to a lesser degree. Michal Corner might be a supporter of his, but he was more likely to support Dumbledore over him. Still, he was no threat.

Anthony Goldstine was already gone, for which Harry was grateful. The boy was future Oder member, and Harry knew he was a Dumbledore supporter. He alone was not a threat, however he might inform Dumbledore, or one of his senior lackeys about what Harry was doing.

Harry got up, and got dressed. Before he could be questioned by his dorm mates he had left the dormitory and gone for breakfast.

Arriving in the Great Hall early, he saw that only he, a few of the faculty, and a couple of Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were in the room. Dumbledore was sitting on his throne, looking out over the hall.

When Dumbledore saw Harry he smiled at him. Harry saw that, and sent a sneer back. Dumbledore's expression changed to one of the kindly grandfather who was disappointed in the comportment of his student.

Harry ignored Dumbledore, and began eating. As the rest of the school began to file into the hall, Harry was again facing twenty questions. After answering the same questions for the fifth time, Harry simply stopped answering.

Just as Harry was finishing his breakfast, the Daily Prophet arrived. Harry had been anticipating this all morning. When he saw the headline on the paper that Padma had gotten he had to stifle a grin.

**Dumbledore the Dark Lord?**

**Abuser of Boy-Who-Lived revealed**

_Yesterday, Harry Potter returned to the Wizarding word after being put in a safe environment by Albus Dumbledore, or at least that is what we were told by Dumbledore ten years ago. Yesterday we received memories from Mr. Potter showing the abusive muggle home he was forced to live in thanks in no small part to Dumbledore himself._

_Mr. Potter told us in his written account following the memories that he had attempted to leave his abusive home, only to be recaptured by muggles within the day. Something that simply was not possible without the magical aid of the only man to known where Mr. Potter was._

_Furthermore, after realizing that he was famous in the wizarding world, Mr. Potter hired the Gringotts Goblins to ward his home. The Goblins however, found wards designed to cause the muggles he lived with to be abusive. Those same wards were designed to track Mr. Potter, and they found the man who was watching the Boy-Who-Lived be abused without even attempting to step in was none other than Albus Dumbledore._

_After Mr. Potter gave this information to the student population, Dumbledore responded by closing the owlrey in an attempt to keep that information from getting to the rest of the wizarding world._

_We at the Daily Prophet wonder if the Boy-Who-Lived might not have it right, calling Dumbledore a Dark Lord._

The paper went on to talk about Dumbledore breaking numerous Goblin treaties, and even accused him of trying to incite another Goblin rebellion.

In the Great Hall the students and staff of Hogwarts were glaring at Dumbledore, who had become the color of bone after reading the articles.

The heads of houses came down from the staff table, and began handing out schedules. Harry was glad to see that the Ravenclaws shared most of their classes with the Hufflepuffs, giving him a clear cut excuse to avoid the Gryffindor Dumbledore cultists and the Slytherin death nibblers.

As the bell rang for class, Harry saw the Hogwarts board of governors walk into the Great Hall, and head straight for Dumbledore.

HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP

(AN )

I must apologize for taking so long to update, I meant to do it last weekend, but between coming down with the flu, and starting two new stories, well I got delayed.

Now, very few people have been voting on the troll scenario on my profile. The troll should be coming in next chapter, so if you want something to happen, go and vote for it. There should be enough options for everyone.

To respond to some of my reviewers, yes Harry will have more allies than just Luna (he already practically has the dwarven nation at his fingers) he just won't trust then to the same degree. Remember, Harry is trying to be manipulative here.

The reason for not getting Hedwig was because not only was her color distinctive, but she had many tracking charms on her.

Snape will not be kind, period. While I have read some good Snape redemption fics, this is not one of them. Snape may dislike what Dumbledore did, but he is still a certified Dumbledore supporting arse.

While it may seem Dumbledore is now screwed, it's just not that easy. Dumbledore will survive this, but he will take damage.

On Harry being a bit too vengeance minded, he has just managed to escape a time where _everyone_ and their proverbial brother was hunting him. He also has serious issues with his former friends. He will mellow out, he won't be killing every future enemy, but he will remain pretty cold towards most of them. Neville is a possible exception, simply because he understands why Neville did what he did.

Hermione is a very complicated situation that I will try to get into next chapter. Harry hates her, but it's not so black and white as Ron is.

Next update should be sometime in the beginning of November.


	13. Trolls and the Assorted Mess

Harry continued to attack Dumbledore in the press for nearly a week, after which, Dumbledore had lost his position has Supreme Mugwump of the ICW. Unfortunately for Harry, Dumbledore was able to maintain his positions as Chief Warlock of the Wizamgot, and his position of Headmaster.

What was more annoying was that despite about half of his gold being seized by the goblins, Dumbledore was still rich enough to bribe the Daily Prophet into supporting him. Of course, he couldn't aim the Prophet at Harry without wrecking any chance of becoming Harry's "confidant". Naturally Dumbledore decided to blame the Ministry, and the Minister for Harry's abuse. The Prophet ate it up.

It took only three weeks for the "Dumbledore is the Dark Lord" craze to die down, but many of Dumbledore's supporters were now at best lukewarm. More importantly Dumbledore had to call in quite a few political favors, and resort to some not insignificant bribes, to retain his power.

Of course Harry was not supposed to know most of this, but then the prophet had been screaming about it for a week and then they suddenly changed gears, after that Harry was able to draw his own conclusions.

Within Hogwarts however, a small but significant part of the school population thought of Dumbledore as evil, or dark. After all, when the Boy-Who-Lived accuses him in the middle of the great hall, it must be the truth. (The fact that it actually _was_ the truth had no bearing on their belief)

Harry was doing average in his classes, and after his outburst against Dumbledore on the first day he stayed rather quiet. Of course he_ was_ a celebrity, so it's not like he could just fade into the background.

Harry was carful during his potion lessons to make his mind _appear_ unprotected to Snape, while at the same time keep all of his real thoughts hidden. Ironically it was not all that hard, he just pushed a false mind in front of his own, and let Snape ravage and manipulate it how he wished.

The only problem was that Harry had to be carful to act like Snape was actually affecting his real mind. After all, if Snape erased part of the directions from his false mind, Harry had be sure to pretend to forget them, otherwise Snape might grow suspicious that his mental sabotage was having no effect.

As Halloween approached, Harry began to debate with himself over what to do when Quirrell let the troll in. At first he wanted to let the troll kill Hermione and be done with her, but then he remembered what she had said to him when he confronted her weeks after he first discovered her betrayal.

*Flashback*

"Why did you do it Hermione? What could have possibly convinced you to betray me to that bastard?" Harry yelled at her.

Hermione was sitting on a couch in Grimauld Place. Her face was steaming with tears as Harry's wand was pointed at her.

"Don't you understand Harry, I didn't betray you; I told Dumbledore what he needed to know for your own good."

Harry's face grew thunderous. "MY OWN GOOD?" he shouted. "WHAT COULD POSSIBLY BE GOOD ABOUT LEARNING ALL OF MY FRIENDS WERE _BLOODY TRAITORS_!"

Hermione cried harder. "Ha-Harry, I thought Dumbledore would h-help you, he t-told m-me he needed to k-keep y-you safe."

Harry's wand was now aimed right between her eyes.

"How could you possibly believe that SPYING on me would keep me SAFE? The only people I need to be protected from are Dumbledore and his lackeys like YOU!"

"Ha-Harry" Hermione said as she quailed under his glare "I thought that what I was doing was _he-helping_ you. I th-thought that you w-would'nt want to be busy reporting everything you did, s-so I did it f-for you."

Harry's glare could probably have given a Basilisk a run for its money.

"Get out" he hissed "and don't ever come back here"

Hermione, sobbing quite loudly fled from the house, never to step foot in it again.

*Flashback End*

Then Harry had been so angry that he had barley understood her argument, but now, looking back on it, he realized that she had been tricked into following Dumbledore, and had never realized when she started putting Dumbledore's goals before her friend.

Harry knew that after he fled Britain Hermione was one of the Order members that were tasked with finding and killing him. He knew because he had been forced to duel her twice, and each time was forced to flee before Dumbledore arrived and trapped him there.

By that time, Hermione was simply another Order member, slavishly loyal to Dumbledore, who happened to know their target well. Harry had not held back against her, and she had done her best to kill him, but now, he realized that however misguided, she was still loyal; she was just loyal to a different person.

Which brought him to his present dilemma; he wasn't sure what he wanted to do in regards to the troll. What made the situation even more complicated was that even if he _did_ let the troll run rampant, there was no guarantee that Hermione would even be in the same bathroom, or that the troll would go that way anyway.

After a few days of thought, Harry decided he would just kill the bloody thing, and not bother trying to get Hermione killed.

HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP HP

On Halloween night, Harry decided not to go to the feast, he would simply pretend to have a stomach ache, and if questioned later he would claim to be lying in his bed all night.

After his dorm mates left for the feast, Harry got up, and disillusioned himself. He then proceeded to sneak down to the entrance hall, where he watched Quirrell let the troll into the castle, and direct it down to the dungeons.

Harry followed the troll with his feet silenced, and waited until Quirrell rushed back up the stairs before descending right behind the monster.

The damn thing smelled very bad, it hardly needed its club; just its stench was weapon enough.

Harry held out his wand and quickly said "rumpus bone parties"1

The curse was a semi dark curse, all but useless in dueling for students because of its long incantation. The only way to use it effectively was to hit first, and unexpectedly. The spell was designed to shatter a bone into hundreds of inch long shards, each of which would be incredibly sharp, and would be driven into the surrounding tissue, doing significant damage to internal organs. Better yet, the shards of bone were notoriously difficult to remove, and caused more damage when they were removed, thus making the spell an almost guaranteed victory in a fight.

Of course trolls are infamous for being spell resistant, so while the curse struck the troll in the spine, the spine did not shatter as advertised. Still, the troll's back was well and truly broken. Its spinal column snapped in ten different places, and as it whimpered in pain, Harry aimed a reducto curse at its skull.

The troll's head was blown apart. Harry had enough experience at killing things that he avoided the gore the explosion produced.

He snuck back to his dorm, ahead of the students that Dumbledore had so foolishly sent unescorted through an unsecured building.

By the time his dorm mates arrived, Harry had already cleared his wand of the two curses he cast, and he pretended to listen with rapt attention to their speculation on how the troll got in, and how the teachers would beat it.

(AN)

So, another chapter gone, and Harry has finally begun to take action. He won't be going after the stone until Quirrell tries for it, simply because he can then let Quirrell do all the effort, take all the blame, and Harry can just take the stone with no one the wiser.

Hope you enjoyed the way Harry dealt with the troll. I tried to get into a bit of the Harry Hermione dynamic a bit here. Hermione didn't think that she betrayed Harry, and in fact, didn't realize she had until it was too late. By the time of the DA though, Hermione was already a junior Order member.

I hope to finish up first year in a chapter or two, but there is one twist coming up towards the end.

Now, one thing I have to say disappointed me, many chapters ago, I asked you to guess what Harry's factories will be producing. I got a grand total of zero guesses. Come on people, even if you guess wrong, I might include it if it's a good idea. So far I have those factories producing two things, any guesses?

1 Shatter Bone Shard


	14. Stones and Curses

The rest of first year past with only minor changes until the last month of school; Harry had no real friends in the school, all though he had encouraged Neville a bit.

Harry had been very cautious, and subtle in his maneuvering this year, but he also knew that couldn't last.

Finally, Quirril was making his move for the stone. Harry of course had been careful to find the Mirror of Erised and learn about the Philosophers Stone, so his intervention should be plausible to Dumbledore.

Harry decided that this time he would not be going through the traps that Dumbledore placed for him. Instead he used the tunnels connected to the Chamber of Secrets, which was a little over half completed. The dwarves had been working miracles almost daily to get the Chamber ready for use by the next Halloween.

While the Chamber was not fully functional, the tunnels were still there, so Harry simply walked into one of them and waited for Quirril to show up.

Before he did however, Harry looked into the mirror and projected his desire for the stone to remain safe at the magical glass. The Philosophers Stone dropped into his pocket, and Harry threw a transfigured bit of wood into the mirror to take the place of the real Stone. On the off chance that he was somehow bested by Quirril (unlikely but why take the chance?) the Stone would be safe in the tunnel and Voldemort would still be stuck in limbo.

Harry didn't want or need Voldemort back until he was ready to start equipping his army. Voldemort would be his primary recruiting tool, and having him come back now would hinder some of his plans.

Quirril arrived nearly an hour after Harry began his stakeout. As Quirril and Voldemort argued back and forth about how to get the Stone, Harry, disillusioned and silenced, crept behind him and then projected his desire to protect the Stone into the mirror again.

"Looking for this Quirril?" Harry said holding up the fake Stone and dropping the disillusionment charm.

Quirril whirled around and sent a _reducto_ curse at Harry's head.

Surprised that Voldemort wasn't trying to convince him to join the Death Eaters, Harry ducked and sent a disarming hex back at him.

The two of them exchanged spell fire for nearly a minute. Harry was unwilling to use the powerful spells he knew to end the fight, and Quirril didn't have the power or skill to beat him.

Finally, when Quirril was panting and barely able to cast another spell, Voldemort declared himself, and ordered Harry to surrender the Stone.

"What's in it for me if I give you, the man wanting me dead, the power to come back to life?" Harry asked after Voldemort made his offer.

Voldemort was clearly confused. He obviously hadn't thought that Harry would consider the idea. Or maybe he was surprised that someone was daring to negotiate with him, either way he was off balance.

"Should you give me the Stone I will not kill you Potter." Voldemort said after a long pause.

Harry frowned. "But on the other hand if I keep the Stone, then you still won't kill me and I will get infinite wealth. I fail to see how you getting the Stone benefits me."

Harry was truly playing with Voldemort, He knew that Tom was basically at his mercy, and frankly the only reason Harry hadn't already killed him was that he would be a very useful tool some time in the future.

Voldemort was confounded. This _boy_ was actually bargaining with him, and the worst thing was that he didn't have anything to bargain with! He couldn't kill the brat at the moment because the insolent upstart was too fast, and he couldn't come up with a logical argument that would convince the brat to give him the Stone willingly.

Worse, it looked like only a logical argument would convince the brat to surrender _his_ prize. At least he knew that the boy wasn't a Dumbledore worshiper who would be his mortal enemy forever more, or something equally melodramatic.

Voldemort wondered if he had misinterpreted the first half of the prophecy that he had heard. He certainly wasn't dead, and the brat didn't seem to want to kill him, so what the hell did the rest of the prophecy say.

Harry watch as Voldemort's face contorted with frustration. Harry was truly just amusing himself, he was in no danger, and this was the first time he could let some of his guard down. It was rather amusing actually, that he had to be more careful around eleven and twelve year olds than a Dark Lord who terrified thousands, but that was just the way things were.

Voldemort finally decided to appeal to the brat's emotions and hoped that it would get through.

"I can give you your parents back boy, I can bring them back to life." He said with appropriate gravity.

Harry only chuckled in response. "Sorry Voldy old boy, but I already know that's impossible. Plus, at the moment I'm doing just fine without them."

Voldemort was shocked at the child's emotionless response. Even he wasn't that cold at the boy's age!

"If you give me the Stone I can give you power boy." Voldemort said, beginning to grow desperate. "More power than you can possibly imagine."

Harry seemed to think for a moment and then said "So basically you can't offer me anything in exchange for the Stone, let alone something that is worth the same. I'll see you around Voldemort; let me know how that whole _coming back to life_ thing goes will yah?"

Voldemort screamed in rage and sent three killing curses at the boy, only to collapse due to magical exhaustion. Harry dodged the first two killing curses, and the third missed out right.

After confirming that Quirril was dying and would expire within the day, Harry left through the hidden door. Picking up the Stone, Harry took it down to his personal laboratory within the Chamber. While not completely finished yet, it was still the best place to study the stone and try and make a second one.

(A/N)

Sorry for taking so long to update. Life has become increasingly hectic, and I am finding less and less time to write. Add to that a short writer's block that spawned a group of other stories ("for details see my published works" (Lockhart CoS)) and this took a long time.

I have a new poll on my profile for those who want to vote on what the magical factories will be producing. Please take the time to vote, as the revelation will most likely be next chapter.

Next chapter should be the end of first year, and then the Dursleys are going to get a rather large surprise.

Midnighter 13


	15. End of Year Weapons

Harry walked into his lab inside the Chamber. He left the fake stone on the floor near Quirril, just in case Dumbledore found him before Harry was safely away.

Harry placed the real stone down on one of the tables and began casting diagnostic charms on the stone. He quickly realized that the stone was a matrix of blood and gold bound within a ruby that was heavily enchanted.

Harry spent hours trying to break the arithmatic code that bound the matrix together, but he was unable to. This effectively meant that Harry could use, but not reproduce the Stone. Frowning, Harry locked the Stone in a fidelused safe; inside the most heavily defended room, in the most heavily defended structure on the planet.

Add the fact that no one knew he had the Stone, and even fewer (other than the dwarves) knew where the chamber was, (or even that it truly existed) and Harry was confident that the Stone was as safe as humanly possible.

Harry returned to class for the last few weeks of school. He watched Dumbledore like a hawk, but he couldn't tell if he had discovered the fake Stone. Even if he had, Harry was sure that Dumbledore would be unable to trace the death of Quirril from magical exhaustion back to him.

The fake stone on the other hand possibly could be used to trace him, unlikely, but still possible. Harry thus made sure that the magical signature of his wand was suppressed as much as possible. It was a useful habit to get into again anyway, so Harry didn't really mind.

As the school year came to a close, Harry got an update from one of the dwarven clans on the progress of the factories and the prototype weapons.

Harry had learned from the dwarves that crystals, specifically gems like diamonds could hold magical energy.

Harry decided that this when combined with a Philosopher's Stone based matrix, those gems could be used to create a new type of magical weapon.

Harry had spent nearly three months of the school year getting the prototype working. The weapon was a gun, specifically a type of revolver that could shoot magical spells instead of bullets or darts.

The clip was replaced by a diamond power cell; the chambers were replaced by small circles of crystal that were used as filters.

The magic from the clip would move down the barrel, and then it would pass through the spell filter which focused the raw magic into a recognizable spell.

So far Harry had produced a prototype that could fire _incendio, stupefy, impedimenta, Avada Kadavra, Imperio, agumenti, and reducto._ Harry was bringing the gun with him back to the Dursleys as it was relatively untraceable.

Unlike a wand, these guns would not leave a recognizable spell signature. They would leave one, but it was far weaker than a wand, and more importantly the Ministry could only track wands as magical foci.

Dumbledore might be able to track the actual release of magical power, but because no wand would be used, he would think that it was nothing more than accidental magic.

In order to keep up the false impression of accidental magic, Harry would only be able to use the gun every couple of weeks, or at most twice a week, otherwise Dumbledore would get suspicious.

The ability to use even those few spells over the summer would be quite useful. It was a shame he couldn't include _crucio_ in the gun, but he ran out of time, and crucio would not be very useful in a combat setting anyway. Useful against the Dursley's yes, but Harry was making these weapons for war, not for his own personal use.

Harry intended to add _penetro_ to the arsenal of spells the guns could fire, (it left a smaller but deeper hole in a target than a reducto, and thus could be used to kill someone behind flimsy cover) but at the moment the dwarves were still working on the factories to mass produce them.

The other factories were even farther behind, and would likely not be completed on schedule. That was not a terrible thing however; the second factory was producing something far more powerful than a simple magical gun.

In the second factory, the dwarves were building magical planes, designed so that they could go toe to toe with muggle jets, and also adaptable enough to suppress a Death Eater assault single handedly.

The planes were powered by the same diamond power cells as the guns, only far larger and far more potent.

The planes would have two spell cannons under their wings, similar in design to the smaller spell guns, and would also have spell shields (think advanced incredibly powerful _protego_) and invisibility boosters.

They would be propelled by flight charms similar to brooms, which would allow them to hover. Because they had no engines they would not be picked up on muggle thermal scans or on heat seeking missiles.

Thanks to the magical shields the planes would be imperceptible fuzz even on stealth detecting radar, when added to the invisibility, they would be all but undetectable to muggle aircraft.

Of course, most of those systems were superfluous. The planes were designed to launch and jump around via enclosed port key.

The planes could power up in the hanger and simply port key into the air over their targets. The levitation charms would keep them in the air, and they could open fire within seconds of locating their targets. That would give them mobility and a serious surprise and shock value.

While they could not port key into wards, they could port key out of them simply by overpowering the spells. Wards designed to keep something _out_, were generally rather bad at keeping the same thing _in_. In other words, wards had orientation, and if you attacked a ward from behind it was far easier to defeat.

This was the reason that attacking Azkaban was so damn easy for Voldemort. The wards around Azkaban were orientated inwards, keeping the prisoners in, and letting Voldemort blast his way in with little trouble.

That was one of the reasons that Azkaban while physically a far better defensive position than Hogwarts was in reality a far weaker one. Hogwarts' wards were oriented out to try and protect the school and keep enemies _outside_, (theoretically that is, we all know how good those wards are at stopping Voldemort from entering the school, even in the final battle they did zilch) while Azkaban's wards tried to keep everything _inside_.

The planes could thus teleport _out_ of Hogwarts' wards without difficulty, but in order to land and recharge they had to fly into the Black Lake with their shields up and land in an airlock/elevator that would return them to the Chamber hanger.

The planes were currently more in the design stage than production, and Harry expected that he would have only a handful in the coming years, but even one of these magical machines would be more useful than a small army of Death Eaters. Especially when the Death Eaters didn't know what was attacking them let alone how to react and counter it.

The main problem with both the guns and planes was that they required a power source. The diamond power cells couldn't charge themselves, and while the dwarves could convert almost any power source into magic, that didn't help when there was no power to convert.

Harry thought of geothermal power, but the dwarves shot down that idea when they told him it would take decades to get deep enough to get power from the earth here.

One of the dwarven rune masters suggested using the power of Hogwarts' own wards to power their weapons, and Harry was not opposed to the idea, but the real problem was that any power drawn from Hogwarts had the possibility of being cut by Dumbledore.

Harry had also considered using muggle generators, only to run into the problem of buying and transporting fuel into the chamber.

While in peacetime when they were undetected, or even in war as long as the base was a secret, the fuel issue was not a problem, if Dumbledore ever discovered them he could place them under siege and stop them getting their fuel. From there he could just ware them down until they lost power and the wards collapsed.

Harry didn't want his base to have any true weaknesses, so while muggle generators could be used for auxiliary power or temporary use in the event of power failure, he didn't want them to be the primary power source.

That of course left Harry back at square one, unable to power his base, or his offensive weapons.

The guns were not that big of a problem, wizards could theoretically power them by hand, or at least give them a few shots worth of power at a time, but the wards and the weapons on the planes were far too power hungry to be powered by a living being.

(Even Voldemort or Dumbledore couldn't power all of the systems on a single plane all at once, which gives you an idea of the power requirements.)

After thinking on the problem for the entire year, Harry decided to take a page from the muggle science fiction playbook.

Harry and dwarves worked together and used magic to create a muggle machine that was a perfect blend of magic and technology.

They created a neutrino powered fusion reactor compressed using a runic space compression charm.

The charm compressed the matter within the reactor into a near singularity, and the neutrinos that passed through the dense material induced a fusion reaction.

The neutrinos themselves provided the power to continue the reaction, while the raw materials were supplied by a modified bubblehead charm powered by the reactor itself.

Harry and the dwarves worked on these power generators for months, and the first one was finished and powered up for testing right before Harry went after Quirril.

Now, with school ending, three generators were complete, and the second was already being used to charge diamond power cells.

Harry used the Philosophers stone to turn a few tons of transfigured metal (it was transfigured from stone rubble discarded during construction) into solid (permanent) gold.

Harry had used this gold to pay the three dwarven chiefs a end of the year 'bonus' of sorts, and had also shrunk some of it down so that it could be exchanged for muggle money.

Thanks to his house elves, Harry had already been able to exchange gold for goblin minted Galleons.

HP********************HP*******************HP

Harry boarded the Hogwarts Express with his wand strapped to his leg, and his fully charged magic pistol strapped to the other one.

On the way back he sat with a small group of Ravenclaw girls who he tolerated.

Cho Chang was currently a second year, but she was at least bearable at the time. Harry hoped never to have deal with a hysterical Cho ever again, once was more than enough. Lisa Turpin, Padma Patil, and Su Li luckily respected his taciturn silence and for that Harry was very thankful.

Harry had hardly interacted socially with anyone this year and, recognizing that he would have to begin rallying followers next year with Luna; Harry actually opened up and talked with the girls on the way back to kings cross.

The four had an interesting conversation about summer, and what they planed to do, although Harry was of course careful to say that he would be working on his aunt's garden.

He had to make it sound good to the girls, but also make sure that Dumbledore knew he was lying if he viewed their memories. Gardening was the last thing he planed on doing this summer.

(AN)

Sorry for not updating sooner, I hope to have another chapter out in the next few days.

In regard for the amount of power driven out of Harry's mind in the original timeline, I decided that for the purpose of this story the magical core sends magic to help mature and reinforce the mind and body (do you really think any _normal_ body could survive the punishment that Harry puts on his? Even with magical medicine? Didn't think so).

Dumbledore interfered with that process and sent almost all of the magic that should have caused his mind to grow into his available power core.

When Harry used a ritual to counter Dumbledore's spell all of the excess magic that should have gone to his mind plus a bit _extra_ was driven from his magical core to his brain, causing his mind to magically hyper evolve.

That is why Harry's mental abilities are so much more powerful than anything other wizards are capable of.

In regards to the weapons produced in the factories, originally I was planning to go for planes and plasma guns, but then Portal devices got the most votes so I decided to integrate Port Keys into the planes.

I hope you enjoyed and understood my ward explanation.

As for the spell guns, I realized that not only were they more popular than the plasma guns, they were also far more useful. So I ran with it, I hope they came out ok.

One of the real reasons that I've had such trouble updating this story was because I couldn't find a legitimate power source capable of powering the wards around the Chamber and the powered weapons. I spent weeks trying to come up with some kind of Arithmatic formula that would give a magical generator unlimited or exponential power, but couldn't come up with one. So I decided to go with the next best thing and harness neutrinos.

I realize that Harry's knowledge of science was a bit off, but let's just say he learned about muggle science before he went back in time because this was the only decent power source I could come up with.


	16. Summer Plans

Harry grabbed his trunk from the rack and walked out onto platform nine and three quarters.

After saying goodbye to Cho, Lisa, Padma, and Su, Harry wheeled his trunk out to the muggle platform where he saw the Dursleys.

Harry had to suppress the vicious grin that wanted to break out on his face when he saw them. This summer the Dursleys wouldn't be doing anything to him.

"Get in the car boy" Uncle Vernon said quickly.

Harry nodded, and put his trunk in the boot. As the Dursleys drove back to their house Harry implanted a mental program into their minds that would cause their bodies to react to key words.

Of course Harry had back up plans in the form of his gun, or wandless magic, but it would be better to not need either of those, and the car ride when he was only being monitored by the Ministry for wand work was the perfect time to implant the mental programs.

By the time they entered the town limits, Harry had implanted numerous key words and reactions. He had also made sure that any attempt to extract information from the Dursleys would result in their minds being wiped clean.

When he dragged his trunk into the house Vernon immediately grabbed it and threw it in the cupboard where Harry used to live.

"Now you listen here boy" Vernon began only to be interrupted.

"No you listen you fat bastard." Harry said coldly.

The Dursleys looked at Harry in shock.

"You will do what I tell you, and if you do then I won't hurt you. Cross me, and I'll make you wish for death before I kill you all." Harry said with ice cold fury in his tone.

"Why you ungrateful brat! How dare you talk to..."

"Crucio" Harry hissed. He was not using any magic, but instead using the incantation as the activation word for one of the mental programs he had implanted in the Dursleys on the way back to Privet Drive.

The word activated a mental program that over stimulated the nerves. In other words in felt like a real Crucio spell. The louder Harry said the incantation, the worse the pain.

Because he had only hissed the word, the pain was bearable. Or it would have been if any of the Dursleys were used to pain. As it was all three of them ended up on the ground moaning.

"That was just a taste of what I can do." Harry said coldly, not reacting at all to the fact that his relatives were moaning on the floor.

"Cross me again, and I'll make the pain you just felt feel like a caress." He said finally.

Harry walked over to the cupboard and pulled his trunk out of it. "I will be in my room all summer; I will come out to eat and to run in the mornings. I will not do any of your chores. I'll stay out of your way if you do the same to me. Am I clear?" Harry said emotionlessly.

Vernon went purple and tried to get up.

"Are we clear?" Harry hissed.

Vernon charged at Harry.

"Petrificus" Harry said calmly at full volume. All of Vernon's muscles seized up and he fell down again, in a parody of a body bind.

"That will last five minutes uncle, I hope you regain control of your pathetic mind by then, or I may have to hurt you." Harry sneered. He then carried his trunk up to his room.

Over the next few weeks Harry followed the same routine. He got up at six, ran around the block four times (he was gradually speeding up by building up both his muscles and by improving the amount of magic his body used while exercising.

After his run he would return to the house and take a short shower. When he was done he would get dressed, go down and eat breakfast with his relatives and then retreat to his room until dinner.

During that time he was reading, meditating, and planning what he needed to do the following year. Everything from meeting Luna, to hunting down the Horcruxes, to building up his own army.

After dinner he would return to his room and reinforce his mindscape and other mental abilities.

After meditating again, he would go to sleep. This routine went all the way through June and the early part of July. In the middle of July however during the afternoon he got updates on his projects and properties delivered to him by one of his house elves. He spent a few hours a day making sure that everything was on schedule and would be ready to act when he was.

Harry also relayed his orders to the dwarves via the house elf that delivered his daily reports.

The chamber modifications were getting close to finished, the dwarven clans expected to be completed on schedule baring some unforeseen difficulties.

They also reported that the Basilisk seemed to have woken up a few weeks after he left Hogwarts. Fortunately the Basilisk was still confined behind the stone wall that had once been a statue of Salazar Slytherin.

The power generators were working well, although there had been a few bugs in the prototype they had been ironed out in the second generation generators.

The dwarven Clan under Chief Dormon (the Clan that was doing the warding/rune work) had requested permission to add some more powerful (and thus more power hungry) active wards to the interior of the fortress. Harry had agreed and promised Chief Dormon and his Clan a bonus of gold made by the Philosophers Stone if they could have it all done by the upcoming Halloween.

Chief Dormon and his workers were delighted at the prospect of a challenge. It had been generations since they had last been able to build complex powerful wards; their own land was too weak to support the magic they could create. But the Chamber was made out of old and powerful stone, and the wards could now be powered by a power source more potent than anything the dwarves had ever seen before.

The magical defenses of this fortress were going to be some of the greatest ever constructed, on par with the wards of the Great Wall of China or the defenses around the ancient wizard city Atlantis. In fact, if they were careful, this fortress might very well outlive humanity itself.

When he heard that, Harry grinned widely and mentally tripled the bonus he planed to pay the dwarves.

The rest of summer seemed to speed by. Harry was extremely busy between planning for the future, refining his abilities and reading reports on his projects.

The magical gun factory was complete and had begun turning out hand guns in early August, and the rifle version (which had longer range and a more powerful clip) was in the testing stage.

The aircraft factory was still being built, and the first prototype had been scrapped. The dwarves were nearing completion of the second prototype, and they were far more hopeful that this one would be viable.

Harry had sent messages to a few land holders in the pacific, and was hoping to buy a warded island from a few of the magical enclaves in Indonesia.

Harry wanted an island for two reasons, one, it would be useful as a reserve if he ever did manage to get the Werewolves on his side. And two, if everything went to hell in a hand basket again, then it would be the perfect place to set up the ritual to go back in time again.

As the summer came to an end, Harry quickly ran through his summer work and completed it in a matter of hours, and then began preparing to return to school, and 'meet' Luna.

(AN)

Sorry about the long wait, fate decided that she didn't want me to post anything and so she made sure I couldn't write anything until now. I'm not sure when I'll be able to update again, but don't expect anything for at least a couple of weeks.

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed this story, many of your comments have helped shape this story.

Special thanks to

Jimk, elisa-didlittle, ReflectionsOfReality, athenakitty, Paladeus, reader1writer1,

Mighty-Huntress and Cassandra30.

You guys all either reviewed so much I had to include you, or gave me ideas that changed where I was going with this story. Thank you all.


	17. Code Words

Harry took muggle transportation to Diagon Alley, where he got his school supplies a few weeks before the end of August. Harry was sure that Dumbledore not only tracked him there, but had someone observing everything he was doing.

For that reason, Harry only grabbed what was required, and a few extra books that would not raise suspicion, such as books on household charms and pests, and a small book on healing charms. History was also touched on; Harry didn't think Dumbledore would find that _too_ suspicious, after all, Binns was a joke at best.

While he knew how to cast most of the spells in the books, he didn't exactly know what they were used for, or when to use them. For example the healing spell _episky_ would force broken bones or cartilage back in place which he knew, but he didn't know if it actually healed the break. Moreover, that particular charm was useless against cuts, bruises, or direct spell damage. Useful information for soldiers in other words.

After grabbing what he needed, he returned to his relatives' house for the last few weeks of summer.

On September First, Harry was driven to Kings cross by a trembling Uncle Vernon. Harry had threatened him with another, more painful Crucio session before he caved in and surrendered to Harry's demands. Harry frankly considered going back on his deal and using Crucio anyway, but he decided that it was better to have Vernon terrified of him than planning some kind of pathetic revenge.

Taking his trunk out of the car, Harry wheeled it into the station. Vernon drove away as quickly as the speed limit allowed when Harry exited the vehicle.

Harry wasted no time. He walked quickly and purposefully straight through the barrier onto the wizard platform. Barely slowing, Harry boarded the Hogwarts Express.

Harry knew he couldn't afford to contact Luna on the train, Dumbledore would know that he specifically sought out this _particular_ first year, and would try and use Luna to control him. On the other hand, there was nothing stopping Harry from showing up early and hoping that Luna would sit in his compartment.

Subtly watching the platform through the window, Harry watched as various friends and enemies boarded the train. Ten minutes before the train left, Harry saw Luna step through the barrier and onto the platform. Even though he was incredibly happy to see her alive and well, nothing in Harry's body portrayed that. His eyes stayed unfocused, his breathing steady, even his heartbeat didn't change. Harry was taking no chances.

While in his past, Dumbledore had not placed the most intrusive charms on him until after third year (when he had Sirius to go to); Harry was not under Dumbledore's thumb this time around. Thus Harry assumed that Dumbledore had placed charms on him to track almost anything about him.

Being careful to avoid doing anything that might seem to out of place to Dumbledore, Harry had so far managed to keep a low profile, or at least as low a profile as a celebrity who ousted the previous government could be. (After Harry's announcements Dumbledore had to hammer the Ministry to keep in Harry's "good graces" remember).

This year however, Harry knew that unless he was extremely lucky things were going to get at least somewhat ugly, if not down right violent.

With two minutes to go before the train left Harry saw the Weasley family come though the barrier in a rush.

Harry again showed no reaction, but in his mind he chuckled as he realized that the Weasleys really were incompetents, and it wasn't just an act.

The train ride to Hogwarts was amusing, as the Ravenclaw girls who had been talking with him on the way back to London invaded his compartment and began their conversation right where they left off three months ago, only this time they were talking about the summer in the past tense.

While Harry smiled, laughed and joked with them, he couldn't repress a momentary pang of disappointment that Luna didn't join him in the compartment.

When the train pulled into Hogwarts Harry disembarked with the others and followed them to the thestral pulled carriages. Absently noting that he could still see the thestrals even in his young body, Harry continued talking with Padma Patil and Su Li on the way up to the castle.

The three of them entered together with Harry absently avoiding Malfoy, oblivious to the blonds' indignation.

Harry was careful to leave an open seat next to him. His mental abilities allowed him to do so without Dumbledore picking anything up.

When the first years entered, Harry saw Luna again, and despite himself his heart gave an extra loud thump. Fortunately, no one seemed to notice, including Dumbledore, which made him relax a bit; maybe he was overestimating the old coot. After all, he had managed to escape the coot in his old timeline, so he was not quite as all knowing as he tried to appear (or become thanks to his spies and charms).

Disregarding Harry's musings, the sorting began. Harry paid a passing bit of attention to the song, not having heard it last time. Fortunately the song was not all that different than his first year.

As the sorting began Harry paid more attention. As Colin Creepy was sorted into Gryffindor, Harry gave a subtle sigh of relief. He had enough problems getting around already without _two_ Dumbledorian stalkers after him, especially inside his own House. (Colin and Ginny if anyone's interested in the list). Getting around just Dumbledore's spells and paintings was hard enough, thank you very much.

Finally McGonagall called out "Lovegood, Luna."

Harry watched as Luna pranced up to the stool and put the hat on her head. After about forty seconds, the hat shouted out "RAVENCLAW!"

The Ravenclaw table started clapping, and Harry clapped a bit louder than was strictly necessary. Not loud enough to get noticed, but still, Harry thought Luna deserved at least that much.

As Luna walked towards the Ravenclaw table, she spotted the seat near Harry, and quickly filled it.

Harry had to suppress a maniacal grin that wanted to break out on his face. It looked like things were finally looking up for him.

After Weasley, Generva was sorted into Gryffindor (to her brother's pleasure) Dumbledore stood up and said "I've always found the train ride to be rather long, eat up!"

Cheers greeted his words as the food appeared.

Harry Luna, and the other Ravenclaws dug into the food with relish, and conversations began.

"Hello Luna, I'm Harry Potter." Harry introduced himself.

Luna looked up at him for a moment before turning back to her food.

"You should probably check your food for Nornedic Termites Harry Potter, they love bacon."

Harry stiffened for a full three seconds before he forced himself to relax. '_It's just a coincidence_' he told himself. '_Just a coincidence_'. Still, he could resist responding.

"I'm sure that if there was one in there it would leave quickly to find a mate." Harry said casually.

Luna it seemed took no notice of what he said and Harry wilted in disappointment. For a moment there, he had gotten his hopes up.

"I don't think they could find a mate without placing a mark on each other first. If they haven't then they still might be in your food. Best to check just in case." Luna said airily.

Harry sat up and examined his food, while inside he was practically dancing for joy. "Nope" Harry grinned "All clear here."

For just a second their eyes met and they shared a look of understanding.

Padma Patil interrupted their conversation by asking "What are Nornedic Termites? I've never heard of them."

Harry grinned as he listened to Luna's explanation.

"They are termites that infest softer organic material like flesh and leaves instead of bone or wood. They are a plague amongst the larger species of African bird as they generally infest the eggs and the chicks when they hatch. Magically they only have a limited ability for turning ethereal, but that gives them the ability to stay undetected by muggles and by the birds themselves."

Padma nodded seriously. "Thanks, are you interested in Magical creatures?" she asked.

"Why of course!" Luna exclaimed "They are such fascinating things, and their abilities are quite interesting as well."

Dinner progressed well, with Padma and Su Li befriending the young Ravenclaw. Harry knew that both were trustworthy, and Su Li was about as trustworthy as anyone he knew except for Luna.

Su Li had helped Harry escape Britain by giving him the magical signal needed to bring down the anti-flight charms Dumbledore had put up around the borders of Britain to stop Harry flying off the island.

After he had fled to France and tried to disappear, the Daily Prophet reported that Su Li had been killed by a smuggler gang trying to strong arm her. Harry knew better. Dumbledore had killed her for allowing him to escape.

Harry would trust Su Li almost as much as Luna if it came down to it.

After diner, Harry, Luna, Su, and Padma walked together back to the common room. The girls showed Luna where she was sleeping, before they returned to the common room to talk. As the common room emptied, Harry subtlety transferred the tracking charms he could detect on him onto a conjured puppy, which he ordered to his bed.

Finally near eleven at night Harry and Luna were alone. Harry raised his palm towards her when she opened her mouth. She didn't react except to close her mouth. Harry beckoned her towards a wall in the common room. She followed him and he hissed at it.

The wall, in reality an entrance to the Slytherin tunnels (now the fortress tunnels) opened and the two of them stepped into it.

The pair walked in silence down to the end of the tunnel. Before Harry opened the door to the Fortress Proper, he had to be sure.

"Check" he said looking straight at her.

"Mate" she replied without hesitation or a hint of dreaminess.

"Mark" He said firmly.

"Clear" Luna said in the same tone.

The phrases and counter phrases were something that he and Luna had come up with to identify themselves when they were undercover, and later to make sure that Dumbledore hadn't put one of them under the imperious curse.

There was no way that Luna, or anyone else in this time could know those phrases. Harry nodded to her and then opened the door to the fortress.

Luna gasped as she saw what the Chamber had been turned into. First, it was four times the size of the original. Second there were buildings built into the sides of the chamber. Third, there were walls, wards, and shields in place all over the place.

There was a library, and command center. Factories and armories were stocked with pistols and the rifle version were just beginning to role off the assembly line.

The air craft factory was being finished, and the hanger was done. In the ceiling was a large seam that could fold the roof down, holding the water up via over powered bubblehead charm. This would be the planes "landing strip".

"Luna, welcome to the Fortress." Harry said with a smile.

Luna looked around in awe. Even with three dwarven Clans working on the project for over a year, it was still amazing.

"Come on" Harry said, and led her to what looked like a blank stretch of wall. Then Harry whispered in her ear "Commander Potter's office is in the southeast corner."

Luna's eyebrows rose as a door appeared out of the stone.

"Fidelius? She asked quietly. Harry simply nodded.

The two of them entered and Harry sat behind his desk. "How?" he asked finally.

Luna smiled. "I'm a seer Harry, you already knew that. When you came back in time, thinking about me, and who I was, my seer abilities allowed me to view my life in your timeline. I saw everything from the age of ten up to my death. I may not have been able to hear my thoughts, but I could see and hear what was happening.

Harry nodded. "So you know everything up until your death?" Harry asked hesitantly.

"Precisely." Luna said with a small smile. "I knew you could understand if I put it in small words."

Harry gave her a mock glare before subsiding. "Then you should probably hear what happened after you died."

Luna looked at him in sympathy. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to Harry. It looks like things are happening differently this time anyway." She said.

"No, you deserve to hear this." Harry said firmly.

(AN)

Harry is building up his Army to fight a multitude of different enemies. Dumbledore, the Ministry and Voldemort (in that order) just for starters. Remember, this Harry is not fighting just to get rid of Voldy and live happily ever after. He is going to become a force to change the wizarding world, whether they like it or not. (Conceivably he could even be called a "Dark Lord" by the Ministry, at least until he takes it over).

Harry will not be reconciling completely with Ron or Hermione. Ron he wants to kill. Reconciling partially with Neville and Hermione is possible, but he won't ever trust them as much as Luna. Period.

Dobby was unable to contact Harry this year because Dumbledore placed more powerful wards around Privet Drive. He didn't want his weapon out of control, and Dobby is about as out of control as you can get without involving chaos theory.

The reason that no one got Harry away from the Dursleys is two fold. First there was a media blitz against the Ministry using it as an issue. So everyone thought it was dealt with.

Second, Dumbledore controls Britain almost exclusively. He controls the courts and the legislature, and has serious influence over the executive. If he wants something done, it's done.

If he wants Harry to have him as a magical guardian and have the Dursleys as his physical guardians then who is going to tell him no? Exactly, the only people willing to even _attempt _to stand up to him are _Death Eaters_!

Question for the readers now. Harry and co. now have begun building up a war industry. Should they expand on that and produce more items/weapons or is what they have enough?


	18. History and Snakes

"I'm sure you saw what happened as Dumbledore emerged after the final battle." Harry began with a deep breath. "After I learned about the betrayal of all my friends, except you, I started avoiding everyone but you, as I'm sure you saw."

Luna nodded. "Just remember, Harry, I saw everything, but I couldn't hear my thoughts, so I don't know what I was thinking at the time." Luna's voice faded for a moment as she drifted out of her mind, then she said, "Still, I can't imagine Dumbledore or Ginny were happy about you spending most of your time either with me or alone."

Harry snorted. "'Not happy' was an understatement. Dumbledore wanted me to be his poster boy, and I couldn't do that as a hermit."

Luna nodded in sympathy.

"Ginny was almost worse as she wanted me to become some kind of party host all the time. Worse, she only wanted to invite the 'influential purebloods,' meaning those who were rich, and definitely not my friends. " Luna snorted at that.

"You hate parties, why would she think you'd want to host them?" Luna asked with her head quirked.

"I have no idea, maybe Dumbledore had her under some kind of compulsion, or maybe she was just cracked, but either way, I couldn't stand her, mere weeks after our 'supposed' wedding."

Harry stood up and started to pace. Even with his powerful mental abilities, the next part of the story was difficult to talk about.

"Dumbledore tried to force me back into the public eye." Harry said, looking at his feet. "I refused, and you were found dead with a Dark Mark over your house the next day."

Luna winced at his ragged tone.

Harry continued pacing. "I was shattered. You were my only true friend Luna, my only confidant. When Ginny made a comment about how I would now have the time to use my fame on behalf of the 'Light,' I snapped."

"Did you kill her?" Luna asked softly.

Harry snorted and sank back into his chair. "No, I didn't kill her. In a way, I wish I had, but I didn't have the stomach to kill then. Besides, because of the marriage spell, if I had killed her, we would have both died."

Luna reached out and held his arm. In the steady glow of the light crystals imbedded in the ceiling, Harry looked pale.

"I drugged her with The Draught of Living Death and portkeyed with her to the cliffs where Tom hid his locket Horcrux. I flew her in the cave and dumped her in the lake with the inferi. I figured they deserved her."

Luna's mouth quirked. "You dumped her in an undead lake?"

Harry snorted again, this time in mirth. "Well, I didn't have too many options at that point, but yeah, I did."

Luna couldn't help herself, she started giggling uncontrollably. "Oh, I wish I had been able to see her face when she woke up. Her hero dumped her in a lake." Her giggles turned into full bellied laughs.

Harry relaxed a bit at the sound of her laughter. He had been worried that she would hate him for what he had been forced to do.

Harry grinned. He hadn't heard her laugh in years. Finally, Luna got herself under control.

"So what did you do then?" she asked, not knowing if she really wanted to know.

"Not much." Harry admitted ruefully. "I tried to kill Dumbledore in revenge first, but I failed and ended up with the Order and the Ministry after me for Ginny's death and for being a new Dark Lord."

Harry grimaced. "I was stupid enough to try killing Dumbledore outright and straight up." Harry shook his head. "Stupid. Dumbledore is a manipulator. He set me up, and I ended up running for my life again. This time though, the Ministry was supposedly under the control of the 'good guys'."

Luna and Harry snorted at the same time. Neither one of them had a high appreciation for the Ministry in any form, not after the Umbridge debacle.

Harry continued morosely. "I realized that I had to get out of Britain. With the Ministry and the Order hunting me, I was running out of places to hide. They had Ron and Hermione to help predict my actions, and some of Dumbledore's more advanced tracking enchantments were still partially functioning."

Luna frowned. "How were the spells still active?" she asked confused.

Harry laughed. "Dumbledore isn't above doing something illegal to keep control of his ace in the hole, Luna, he had a number of blood trackers on me, and an advanced beacon potion placed in my blood during the post third task hospital wing stay. Following me was all too easy for them."

Luna stared in shock. "How did you get away?" Luna asked breathlessly. "It should have been impossible."

"I think that was the idea, Luna" Harry said dryly. "Fortunately, I got a little help from Kreature."

"Kreature?" Luna asked in confusion. "Wasn't he the house elf that led the Elvin charge in the Battle of Hogwarts?"

"The very same" Harry said with a sad smile. "He helped me break a number of the lesser blood trackers and purge the beacon potions from my system. After that, I snuck into the Ministry and tried to get a time turner."

Luna nodded at this. A time turner would be of immeasurable value to someone on the run.

"Unfortunately, Kreature wasn't able to get all of the blood traces off of me, and even though they were broad locators, basically accurate to within a hundred kilometers, when coupled with the alert wards over the Department of Mysteries, Dumbledore figured out where I was rather quickly."

Luna looked rather concerned at this. She knew that Harry was no match for Dumbledore, who could read his mind like an open book.

Harry grinned. "Despite that, I think that day was one of my better ones. I trashed the DoM, got my time turner, destroyed the others, and hit Ron Weasley with a full Oblivate spell."

Luna quirked her head. "What good is that? Dumbledore didn't need Weasley that much, what was the point?"

Harry smiled cruelly. "I gave him the same punishment that befell another arrogant arse, who tried to claim my accomplishments. I totally erased his mind, leaving him little better than a first year."

Luna broke into gales of laughter. "You did? Really? That's the most fitting punishment I could think of."

Harry laughed a bit as well while nodding with her. "Ron couldn't have gotten through Hogwarts without Hermione's and my help, so I made sure that he would never remember what we helped him learn. Hermione was furious that I essentially crippled her husband." Harry frowned. "In hindsight, that may be one of the reasons she became so fanatically devoted to killing me."

Before Harry could continue his future history lesson, someone knocked on the door. Since the door was fidelused, and only the three dwarven chiefs could even see it, it was rather obvious who it was.

Harry got up from his seat, and opened the door.

Chief Vengort stood there, with a scowl on his face. "Mr. Potter, as the chief of the clan doing the mining of this chamber, I must know what to do with the Basilisk, and the chamber containing it, and I must know now."

Harry was surprised. Other than a few small messages about the Basilisk, he had all but forgotten about it.

"Of course, chief Vengort, I deeply apologize for not addressing this matter sooner." He said politely. Turning to Luna, he said "If you don't mind, I need to help them out with the basilisk, I'll be back soon."

Luna simply nodded, and decided to explore the rather large and extremely well hidden room.

Harry and chief Vengort walked from the southeast corner over to the only remaining aspect of the original chamber, an overly large bust of Salazar Slytherin.

Behind it, Harry knew was a particularity powerful thousand year old Basilisk.

Basilisks were interesting creatures, (both in the conventional and 'Hagrid' sense). They could only hatch from a chicken egg incubated under a toad. This made them very rare in the natural world. When bred however, they had a number of challenges. While their blood, venom, and bones were all very valuable (and their skin somewhat so), most basilisk breeders had to kill their basilisks and harvest them before their gaze became deadly. For this reason, while Basilisk eyes might normally act as very powerful magical objects, most of the ones available on the black market were rather weak, if they had any magical properties at all.

The real problem with breeding Basilisks was that they were completely illegal. Breeding a basilisk was even worse than hatching a dragon. In fact, if caught with one, (at least in Britain) it was a thirty year sentence in Azkaban.

In most of Europe, Basilisks were one of the most dangerous, and thus illegal, creatures around. Because of this, little was known about them, other than the fact that they were magic resistant, had very deadly venom, and could kill one with a blink of an eye, literally. In other parts of the world, where there were other dangerous creatures (such as Nundus and Chimeras) that could rival Basilisks in raw power, they were not considered quite as bad, but only the insane deliberately tried to raise a Basilisk to its most dangerous form.

Harry of course, knew another reason why Basilisks were illegal; their venom could be used to destroy valuable magical artifacts that could be destroyed few other ways. This was something that the old purebloods, especially, wanted to avoid. If your ancient thousand year old statue of Slytherin was hit by a blasting curse, a simple reparo would fix it right up. If the same statue was hit by Basilisk venom, it was gone, permanently.

The Goblins, of course, hated the idea of their great works of magic being destroyed by snake venom, so they pushed for the Basilisks to be outlawed almost as fervently as the pureblood wizards. They also made sure their most powerful artifacts could absorb some of the power of Basilisk venom and other destructive substances, but that was no real guarantee, more of a precaution.

Harry knew that something like a Basilisk was a great thing to have under his control. It was a virtual goldmine, which if handled properly, would never run out. Still, the major problem with owning and harvesting an old thousand year old Basilisk in such a way was simple, and hard to overcome, how to control the thing.

Fortunately, Harry had a slight advantage, in that he was a parselmouth, and could theoretically, order it around. Unfortunately, as his encounter with this very Basilisk showed, that might not be enough.

So, Harry was going to try speaking to the Basilisk, and bringing it under his control first. But if that failed, he would simply use a rooster to kill it. Even dead, the thing would still give him a tidy profit, and would also give him some ritual ingredients, that were rather hard to come by.

Harry and Vengort walked up to the bust of Salazar Slytherin, and Harry spoke.

"Speak to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts four" As the statue opened its mouth, Harry spoke again, "Stop!" and the mouth froze. There was enough of a gap for the Basilisk to hear what was going on, but not enough for it to escape.

The dwarves, having been alerted by the opening of the statue they had been told to avoid, were all looking anywhere but the open mouth.

Harry spoke to the creature in parseltongue. "Great serpent, I am Harry Potter, ruler of this place, shall you do my will?" Harry figured that as a thousand year old Basilisk, it would require more formal speech to understand him.

The Basilisk replied, "I am Seshteth, I will obey you, Lord Speaker, so long as my master does not command my obedience."

The dwarves shivered as they heard the Basilisk hissing. While they had no prejudices against parselmouths, the sound was still chilling, especially when they knew it was coming from a thousand year old Basilisk that could easily kill them all.

Harry was oblivious to the dwarves' concern; he was more worried about the implications of what the Basilisk had said.

"Who is the master who could command you, great one?" Harry asked quickly.

Seshteth replied "My master hatched me from my egg; my loyalty belongs to him before all others."

Harry frowned. He wasn't sure if Seshteth (he could barely believe the creature had a name, it was like naming a Cerberus Fluffy) was avoiding the question deliberately, or if she was just so old, and isolated for so long that she rambled.

"What is the name of your master, Seshteth?" Harry asked again. After a long pause (for dramatic effect, snakes were like that) Seshteth said, "My master is Salazar Slytherin, Lord Speaker"

Harry frowned. He knew he was likely descended from Salazar Slytherin in some way, and that his scar granted him even more of Slytherin traits, but he wasn't sure he could pull off, pretending to be Slytherin's heir.

"Seshteth, will you obey me as the ruler of this place, descendent of Salazar Slytherin?" Harry asked. He deliberately avoided the topic of Slytherin's heir. So long as Voldemort remained outside the Fortress, his command over Seshteth would remain absolute.

"Yes, Lord Speaker, I will obey the descendent of my master."

Harry sighed in relief. He had her under his control, and for now, that was enough to begin.

"My first command to you, great one, is to not use your killing gaze of those working here. They are my servants and must remain alive to serve me." Harry said quickly. The dwarves would be upset if they heard him refer to them as servants, but it was the only way he had of insuring that Seshteth didn't kill them all in defense of her home.

After Seshteth accepted the order, Harry told chief Vengort that the Basilisk would not attack him or any other dwarf so long as they did not attack her. He then ordered the statue remodeled so that the Basilisk housing area became larger, but also more, integrated with the rest of the Fortress.

After sorting out that issue, Harry yawned and returned to his study where Luna was. As soon as he walked into the room, his jaw dropped. Luna had somehow activated his mirror screen, and was currently, drawing some type of rune sequence on it. His surprise was three fold. First, she managed to discover and activate something of his own creation that was designed so only he could see it, let alone, use it. Second, she was able to not only bypass the protections, but figure out what is was and how to use it. The final thing that shocked him even more however, was that the runes she was drawing were they same ones he used to go back in time.

"How did you do that?" Harry asked her in shock. Luna spun around, and giggled with mischief and innocence into one.

"I saw a wall of glass, so I decided to draw the runes I saw right before you arrived back in time. I must say, they're very pretty, especially in different colors." She said brightly.

Harry sighed. He had forgotten how maddeningly unpredictable Luna could be. She seemed to know everything before it happened, and not all of it could be attributed to her second sight.

"Are you ready to continue your story of doom?" Luna chirped happily.

Harry just nodded. After being dark, grim, and emotionless for so long, having a genuinely happy person around was rather shocking.

"After the Department of Mysteries fiasco, I was able to stay mobile enough that Dumbledore and the Order couldn't catch me. The Ministry never even got close."

Luna nodded solemnly "Yes, being infested with Nargles, and Blibbering Humdingers, the Ministry would never be able to track down someone, who didn't want to be found."

Harry gave a grim smile. "Maybe they couldn't find me, but they could trap me. With Dumbledore's help, they erected wards all around Britain that would stop me from flying, portkeying, apparating, or swimming off the island. I couldn't use muggle transportation either, because the security would leave me there so long, I would be caught by the Order. There are only so many places in Britain you can hide, when you are being hunted by people who can track you and know how you think."

Luna winced at that description. It made it sound like he was hunted like an animal.

Harry smiled. "Fortunately, an old friend from the DA, Su Li, was able to get me the passwords needed to get passed the wards. After that, I flew to France, where I thought I'd be safe."

Luna shook her head. "But France is a member of the ICW, wouldn't Dumbledore have power there?"

Harry smiled bitterly, "Yes, but I only learned that after French aurors started hunting me, along with the Order. After that, I spent some time gathering resources, with the help of Gabriella Delacour, before fleeing to China and going through a ritual of cleansing."

The clock chimed midnight in the room as Harry continued his grim story. "After the ritual, Dumbledore couldn't track me as easily, but I still had to change countries every few months to keep them off my trail. They caught up with me a few times, but I was always able to escape without getting permanently maimed by them. Fighting them was a lot harder though, because I had become weaker magically after the ritual of cleansing. Thankfully, my mental abilities gave me an edge. The nice thing was, every time I went to another country, I would learn magic there, and increase my magical skills. Finally, I was able to combine a Native American ritual with an African ceremony and European Runes to drive my soul back in time."

Luna frowned and asked him while keeping her eyes on him. "So, what do you intend to do now?"

Harry gave a feral smile. "I intend to bring freedom to the oppressed, and destroy anyone who stands in my way."


	19. The Games Begin

**Remember Remeber the fifth of November, **

**the gun powder treason and plot, **

**I know of no reason why the gunpowder treason,**

**should ever be forgot**

After returning to the common room, Harry bade Luna good night, and climbed to his own dorm. Once there he grimaced. The puppy he had conjured to hold the many tracking charms Dumbledore had already placed on him had decided to wet his bed in the most disgusting way possible.

Cursing quietly, so as not to wake his room mates, Harry went about using advanced cleaning spells to fix up his bed, place the trackers back on him, and vanish the conjured dog.

The next morning, Harry noticed that the portraits and ghosts were paying him an inordinate amount of attention. Harry immediately jumped to the worst possible conclusion, and prepared himself for Dumbledore to attack, bind, and try to oblivate him.

A possible over reaction, but then past experience had taught him never to underestimate Dumbledore's power and cunning.

Never the less, by the time he got to breakfast, neither Dumbledore, nor any of his lackeys had attacked him. Harry watched the head table closely, and noticed that the only one who was missing was Snape.

With a start, Harry also recognized that neither Luna nor Su Li were in the Great Hall. Getting worried, but unable to show such emotion before Dumbledore, Harry finished eating quickly before he got up. It was at this point that Draco Malfoy came over to talk with him.

Harry wanted to scream with frustration. Malfoy had been practically courting Harry for his first year, and it seemed he had decided to resume where he left off last year.

"Potter. Welcome back to Hogwarts." Draco said politely.

Harry knew that Dumbledore was watching and probably listening to this conversation with an avid ear (in spite of being at the head table) so he had to be careful and not rush his words. On the other hand, this seemed far too convenient. Snape was out of the Great Hall, possibly with the only two people Harry truly could rely on in Britain, and Harry couldn't leave because Malfoy was engaging him in conversation. To Harry, who had become attuned to such things, it stank of a set up.

Harry did not let the turmoil or panic he was feeling show on his face.

"Thank you Draco, I'm glad to be back."

Malfoy continued to talk with him, even as Harry subtly moved around him and out of the Hall slowly.

With an even more delicate touch, he used his mental abilities to check Malfoy. He found the blond Slytherin under a minor compulsion charm, tasked with keeping Harry engaged in conversation. It was something even a pureblood like Draco would never be able to pick up. It was a subtle urge, but it was still effective.

The spell was so subtle and weak that Harry could not tell who the caster was, but then, he already knew it was either Dumbledore or Snape.

Regardless, the fact that they wanted him kept busy worried him immensely.

After speaking with Malfoy for some time, he was able to shake him off and return to the common room. As he was walking, he saw Luna walking towards him. When she saw him, a flash of panic and fury flashed across her face before she walked past him with cool indifference.

At that moment, Harry knew what had happened. Snape had used Legitimacy on Luna to force her away from him, likely on Dumbledore's orders. Unfortunately for Dumbledore, Harry knew what he was doing this time, and how to fight back.

HP*********************HP*******************HP

Harry watched Luna and Ginny very carefully over the course of the next few weeks. The former because he wanted to know when it would be safe to break her mental blocks, the later because he wanted to make absolutely sure that his plan for the Diary Horcrux and Ginny was on track.

Five days before Halloween, Harry decided it was time to act. In DADA, Harry planted a subtle compulsion into Lockhart's mind.

That night, Harry snuck out of the Ravenclaw common room and went down into the chamber. The dwarves were finishing up a few issues, but by and large the place was complete. The only things that had yet to be done were the completion of the aircraft factory (which he wasn't expecting for another year or so) and the most powerful active wards which had yet to be powered.

Still, the ritual chamber was complete, and that was all Harry really needed for the night. After preparing the room with blood runes, and placing some sacrificial animals (in this case a few toads and fish summoned from the forest and lake respectively) in their proper places for the ritual, he resealed the room and returned to the main castle.

Still disillusioned, Harry used the passages from the fortress into the rest of the castle to emerge right outside the defense classroom.

While waiting, Harry used his mind to convince Lockhart that his task had been completed. Finally, Harry sensed Luna approaching. To him her mind had a very distinctive feel.

Silently, he drew his wand, and when Luna walked around the corner humming a simple tune he struck.

A beam of red light flashed from his wand and struck her before she could react. Before she could fall, Harry had cast a silencing charm around her, and levitated her into the hidden corridor.

Unknown to him, a ghost had witnessed the attack.

HP***********************HP*********************HP

Harry carried Luna through the long corridor, deactivating and then reactivating the wards that had already been established. Finally, he reached the Fortress and walked through the training dojo on his way to the ritual chamber. A number of dwarves who were still working bowed their heads slightly as he walked past in a gesture of respect, and Harry nodded to them in return. Manners went along way when you were basically raising an entire species back to power. Savior or not, you didn't want to get on the bad side of those you were empowering.

Entering the ritual chamber, Harry placed Luna down on the ground in the center of the room. Then, before she woke, he entered her mind. Luna's mind was chaotic at the best of times, but now it was ten times worse. She was under a series of magical compulsions, and mind based blocks, and in addition to that, had magic trying to force her to remain unconscious. Combine that magic with the presence of another, orderly mind in Luna's own chaotic mindscape, and the place was an absolute mess.

Still, Harry was not to be denied. He swept away the mental blocks, and countered the magical compulsions before sweeping away the rest of the magic that was affecting her.

Still, even with this difficult task accomplished, Harry knew that it was only part of the battle. After all, if Luna returned to the school now, she would be back under mental blocks and compulsions within a matter of days, if not hours.

Thus, in order to prevent that, Harry was preparing to use an ancient Mayan ritual, still used in parts of South America to protect her mind.

Leaving her stunned on the floor of the ritual chamber, Harry went out looking for a small group of Dwarven enchanters. When he found them he asked

"Honored users of magic, would you assist me with the performance of a ritual to protect one who aids me?"

The oldest of the dwarves looked at Harry for a moment, and then he nodded sharply, after which the rest of the enchanters followed Harry and the older enchanter to the ritual chamber.

Seeing Luna laying stunned on the floor brought the dwarves up short, but Harry was able to sooth their fears when he explained what had happened to her.

The five magic users chanted over her for ten minutes, before the sacrificial animals dissolved into smoke and reformed over her chest. Harry knew that this was the most dangerous part, and the reason this ritual was not performed often.

Quickly drawing his wand, without breaking the chant, Harry cast a petrifaction curse at the smoke, just as it touched her body. Had he been even a second off then the smoke would have absorbed the curse, and detonated, killing Luna, and possibly Harry and the dwarves. Fortunately, Harry timed his curse exactly right, and the smoke was burned into Luna's skin and absorbed, leaving only a small black mark on her clothing.

HP*****************HP***************HP

Harry waited a full hour, holding vigil over Luna as she recovered. When he realized that she had been taken from him again by Dumbledore, his heart had frozen for an instant. Then, for a full week, he had to pretend that her rejection of him hurt slightly, but that he would move on. In reality, it didn't hurt him, it terrified him. The thought of losing her again, so soon after returning to the past frightened him even more than the thought of Dumbledore discovering what he knew.

Fortunately, with this ritual complete, Luna would be able to hide her true mind behind an illusionary one, similar to what Harry did naturally in potions. This meant that Dumbledore and Snape could do whatever they felt like, but it wouldn't harm her as long as it was all mental.

Luna groaned.

"How are you feeling?" he asked her softly.

She opened her eyes and said "Like I just got hit by a bludger in the chest."

Harry gave a sheepish grin. "Sorry about that, my stunner must have been a bit to powerful."

Luna simply nodded and said "I'm so glad that this happened before my breasts developed, I think it would hurt much worse if you hit those don't you?"

Harry blinked, blushed and started stuttering. "Well, um, yes I suppose so?" he said haltingly. His face grew even redder as Luna started massaging her chest.

"What are you doing?" he asked her hesitantly. She might not remember, but Harry knew exactly what she was going to look like, and seeing her massaging her chest like that was doing funny things to him even with his mental control.

"Well I'm massaging my chest Harry; I would think that was obvious."

Harry stuttered again, but before he could dig himself deeper into a hole, a dwarf rushed into the rom.

"Sir! We have just discovered a cache of scrolls hidden behind the statue of Salizar Slytherin. Some appear to be over a thousand years old!

Quickly forgetting his embarrassment, and shifting back into work mode, Harry nodded and said "Take me to where you found them." As the dwarf left, Harry and Luna followed him, Luna still massaging her chest.

As the group walked into the statue of Salazar Slytherin, Harry hissed a hello to Seshteth, who hissed back a sleepy "I obey massster" Harry blinked, and then his lips quirked in a small smile.

The guide led Harry and Luna to a small chamber that was hidden in the statue. The hole though the wall which they climbed through to enter the room was raged and uneven, obviously newly broken.

Harry and Luna along with the dwarven scholars, who had rushed to the area once word of the discovery filtered out, stared at the huge piles of parchment. Some were scrolls, some were lose pieces of parchment, and there were even a few bound books.

Harry and Luna looked at the old manuscripts. Some were written in Old English, and practically impossible to read. Fortunately, some of the dwarven scholars were able to translate the works, and had determined them to be records of a specific malady that affected the entire magical world. Others however were much newer, and could be read by the layman, and both Luna and Harry set to it with a will.

"Some of these scrolls predate Merlin!" Luna exclaimed in awe.

"The one I'm reading was written around the Statute of Secrecy. In fact, it references the actions of the ICW in their creation of the statute." Harry said in confusion. "How did these documents end up down in the Chamber?" he muttered quietly.

"What could be the purpose of such a body of historical documents?" one of the dwarven translators asked.

Luna gasped. "They are recording the overall loss of magic in the world!" she exclaimed in shock.

"What?" exclaimed Harry and most of the dwarves.

"This scroll here, it says that because the overall amount of ambient magic in Elvin lands decreased, the wood elves lost most of their power, and were dying out." Luna said excitedly.

Harry looked through the scroll he was reading. "Here the writer says that the shift from staves to wands was both to make it easier to hide from muggles, and easier to cast magic with overall because most wizards could no longer muster the power necessary to cast through a staff."

One of the dwarves asked "If that is true then why are there still magic users in the world?"

Luna looked at an earlier scroll and read the introduction "This body of knowledge, such as it exists, is to be used to track the gradual fade of magic from this mortal realm."

The dwarves frowned and Harry looked on with concern.

Luna continued "When this world was created, magic imbued every rock, every grain of sand, and every being. Over the course of history, as magic was used, less magic could be gathered in one place. Over time magical beings could absorb less and less power from the land. As they drew less power into themselves, they used less power over all. "

Harry's eyes went wide. "That makes sense!" he cried out suddenly, startling the dwarves and Luna who looked up suddenly. "When we cast spells we use the magic within us, but we refill our magical core by absorbing ambient magic. I learned that in Bolivia."

The dwarves were not magical scholars, but even to them, this made sense. One of them said "So if there is less ambient magic in an area… then the magical beings will have to worry about magical exhaustion more often. Worse, if they cast a spell of old that is powerful, they may not have enough power absorbed to power the spell, and they could die of magical exhaustion."

Another of the dwarves jumped up. "Then we must stop the enchanters before they begin warding again, or they may well die!"

Harry nodded quickly. "Go" he said sharply. The dwarf ran from the room.

Harry shuddered at the thought of what would happen to the dwarven enchanters who tried to use more magic then they could hold.

"If this has been going on since the beginning of the world, then do we know when all magic will vanish?" One of the younger dwarven scholars asked.

There was a pause, as everyone in the room realized that the end of magic was inevitable according to this information, before Luna said "If there is a set date, then it must be soon, more magical species have been dying off over the course of the last few decades then in the centuries before that. My Daddy covered that in the Quibbler a few years ago to try and shame the Ministry into placing more funding into the magical creatures department."

Harry frowned and said "So basically, if we live long enough we might well be the last magic users into the world in less then a century. And I thought Dumbledore was a threat." Everyone in the room nodded solemnly.

(AN)

So I'm still writing, and Harry has finally hit a number of snags in his plot, the last of which is the most serious. After all, beating Dumbledore and reforming the wizarding world is kind of moot if the whole magical world will be gone in less then a century.

This magical drain is a new danger, designed to be the magical version of Global Warming (or Climate Change is the "politically correct" term now). And it will be used by both sides as an advantage and disadvantage.

My apologies to _wfl's on drugs_, but after reading your review, I thought up the ritual to sacrifice the magic of animals to protect Luna's mind.

To my reviewers, thank you all, I'll try to get another chapter out when I can.


End file.
